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Field,  Coyer,  and  Trap  Shooting. 


ADAM    H.  ^OGARDUS, 

Champwn  Wirig  S/wt  of  America, 


EMBRACINO 


HINTS  FOB  SKILIiED  MARKSMEN  ;    INSTRUCTIONS   FOR  YOUNG 

SPORTSMEN  ;      HAUNTS  AND  HABITS  OF  GAME  BIRDS  ; 

PLIGHT     AND     RESORTS    OF    WATER     FOWL,  ; 

BREEDING    AND    BREAKING    OP   DOGS. 


EDITED    BY    CHARLES   J.    FOSTER. 


New  York  : 
J.  B.  FORD  &  COMPANY. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1874,  by 

J.  B.  FORD  &  CO., 
In  the  OflBce  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  Washington,  D.  C. 


fl^on,  Joijn  m.  ?l|acfeett. 

Recorder  of  N&w  York, 

A     GENTLEMAN      RESTOWNED     ALIKE     FOR     PROFI- 

CIEN"CY     IIS"     FIELD     SPORTS,     AND     FOR 

LEARNIIJfG,     WISDOM,    AND 

IMPARTIALITY   ON 

THE   BENCH, 

TBI 8    BOOK 

IS  RESPECTPUtLY  DEDICATED 


THE  AUTHOR  AND  THE  EDITOR. 


OOISTTEI^TS 


CHAPTER  I. 

Qenebal  Intboductoby  Bemabes. 

Great  Increase  of  Field  Shooting— Delights  of  the  Sport — Expe- 
rience in  the  Field — Beginning  in  Albany  County,  New  York,  at 
Ruffed  Grouse  and  Woodcock— Removal  to  Sangamon  River,  Illi- 
nois— Great  Abundance  of  Game— Numerous  Deer — Removal  to 
Elkhart,  Logan  County— Vast  Numbers  of  Pinnated  (Jrouse — 
Gillott's  Grove— Osage  Orange  Hedges  and  Quail— Pinnated 
Grouse  shot  too  early — Diminution  of  Breeding  Places — Migration 
of  the  Grouse  late  In  Fall — Ducks  and  Geese  in  Com-Fields 
—Nesting  Places  of  Grouse  and  of  Quail— Evil  of  Prairie- 
Burning  late  in  Spring— Snipe,  Golden  Plover,  and  Upland  Plover 
—The  American  Hare  or  Rabbit— Hawks  after  Game— The  Win- 
nebago Swamp  Breeding-place  of  Ducks  and  Crane— Wolves  in 
the  Swamp— A  Wolf-Hunt  in  Gillott's  Grove — Eagles  and  Foxes, 
etc., 13-34 

CHAPTER  II, 

Guns  and  Theib  Peopeb  Chabges. 

Skill  and  Ingenuity  of  Gunmakers— Improvements  and  Inventions 
of  Late  Years — Vast  Advantage  from  the  Breech-Loader — Safest 
and  best  of  Guns — Proved  by  Experience — Close  Hard  Shooting — 
Convenience — Safety  and  Rapidity  of  Loading— Certainty  in  Wet 
Weather — Comparative  Cost  of  Breech-Loaders — Metallic  Car- 
tridge-Cases—Size of  Guns— Advantage  of  Weight— The  Suitable 
Stock— Proper  Filling  of  Cartridges— Trials  of  Guns  —  Breech- 
Loader  vs.  Muzzle-Loader— Loading  of  i  artridges— Quantity  of 
Powder— Sizes  of  Shot  for  Different  Game— Dead-Shot  Powder— 
Tatham's  Shot -Disadvantage  of  very  Large  Shot,  .       .       35-54 


CONTENTS, 


CHAPTER  ni. 

Pinnated  Grodsb  Shooting. 

Abondance  in  the  Prairie  States— Of  SeiTiee  to  the  Farmer- 
Grouse  Polygamous— Booing  of  the  Cooks  in  Spring— Nesting- 
time  and  Nests — Rapid  Growth  of  the  Young  Birds — Supposed 
Hybrids— Grouse  Shooting  in  August  too  Early — The  Easiest 
there  is — The  Com-Fields  the  only  Protection — Grouse  found  at 
Morning  in  Stubbles— In  Clear  Weather  no  Shooting  in  the 
Middle  of  the  Day— On  Damp,  Cloudy  Days  Grouse  in  Stubbles 
all  Day — On  Clear  Days  Shoot  again  towards  Evening — Grouse 
in  Pasture-Land— Shooting  in  McLean  County — Beware  of  Shoot- 
ing too  Quick— Mr.  Sullivant's  Great  Farm— Water  for  Men  and 
Dogs  must  be  Carried,      ..,,....       55-71 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Late  Pinnated  Grouse  Shooting, 

The  Middle  of  the  Day  the  best  Time — Good  Shooting  in  Com  after 
the  Frosts — Wheat  Sowed  in  Com-Fields— No  Shooting  on  Cloudy 
Days — November  Shooting  Best — Grouse  in  Sod  Com— A  Day  in 
Champagne  County — Grouse  wiU  not  Lie  on  Damp,  Cloudy  Daygf 
— Indian  Summer  a  Good  Time — The  Prairies  in  Spring — On 
Bright  Mornings  in  Winter — Scene  near  Chatsworth,  Iroquois 
County,  on  a  December  Morning— Necessity  of  Silence  in  Late 
Grouse  Shooting— A  Trip  to  Christian  County,  .       .       .       72-88 

CHAPTER  V. 

Quail  Shooting  m  the  West. 

Abundance  of  QuaU  in  the  Western  States — Increase  in  the  Prairief 
States — Osage  Orange  Hedges  a  Great  Cause— Afford  Nestings 
Places,  Protect  from  Hawks,  and  Shelter  in  Severe  Weather — 
Nesting  Places  and  Nests— The  Quail  Hawk— Beginning  cf  the 
Shooting— Best  Shooting  after  the  Frosts  in  November  and  De- 
eember— Up  at  Early  Morning— Fine,  Clear  Days  Best— Lie  well 
when  Scattered — Pack  late  in  Fall— Run  in  Damp  and  Wet 
Weather — Netting  now  Unlawful— Quail  Shooting  on  Salt  Creek, 
Sangamon  River— Quail  not  DiflBcult  to  Shoot — Missed  through 
Haste — Shooting  on  Shoal  Creek,  Missouri — Quail  in  Hedges — 
Quail  in  the  South, 89-lOfr 


CONTENTS, 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Ruffed  Gbousb  Shootino. 

Distribution  and  Habits  of  the  Birds— Found  in  Wild,  Lonely 
Places— Favorite  Food  of  Ruffed  Grouse — Beauty  and  Pride  of 
the  Bird — The  Drumming  of  the  Male— Deceptiveness  of  the 
Sound— Macdonald's  Drummer-Boy — Much  Drumming  Before 
Rain— Nest  of  the  Ruffed  Grouse— The  Young  on  the  Cass  River, 
Michigan— Wolves  at  the  Camp  on  the  Cass— The  Chippewa 
Indians— Wildness  of  Ruffed  Grouse— The  First  I  ever  Shot- 
Ruffed  Grouse  hard  to  Shoot  Flying— Goes  for  Densest  Part  of 
the  Thicket— May  be  Shot  over  Setters,    ....       107-120 


CHAPTER  Vn. 

Shootino  the  Woodoook. 

Arrival  in  Spring— The  Breeding  Season— Nest  of  the  Woodcock— 
A  Woodcock  in  Confinement — ^Voracity  in  Feeding — Young  FuU 
Grown  in  July — Solitary  Birds  after  Separation  of  Brood — Noc- 
turnal in  Habit — Supposed  Second  Migration — Laboring  Flight  in 
Summer — Difficult  to  shoot — Density  of  Foliage — Snap  Shooting- 
Swift  and  Twisting  Flight  in  Autumn — Bottoms  and  Islands  of 
the  Mississippi  River — Woodcock  on  the  Illinois  River — Scarcer 
in  general  in  the  West  than  in  the  Atlantic  States — Fall  Wood- 
cock Shooting,         121-132 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

The  Snepk  and  Snipb  Shootino. 

Breeds  North  of  Virginia,  but  only  sparsely  in  the  United  States — 
Arrives  at  Columbus,  Kentucky,  early  in  March — Never  appears 
before  the  Frost  out  of  Ground — Nearly  a  Month  Later  in  Illinois 
than  in  Kentucky— The  Spring  Shooting  Best— Snipe  Wild  at 
First  Arrival— Get  Fat  and  Lazy— Snipe  Shooting  on  the  Sanga- 
mon—Snipe  very  Abundant  in  the  West— Should  be  Beat  for 
Down- Wind— No  Need  for  Dog  on  Good  Snipe  Ground — Difficult 
to  Shoot  in  Com-Fields— Shooting  on  the  Bottoms— Easy  to  Kill 
when  Fat — A  Proposed  Match — In  Snipe  Shooting  much  Walking 
Required— Snipe  Shooting  along  Sloughs  and  Swales— Hovering  of 
Snipe— The  Fall  Snipe  Shooting, 138-148 


b    ■  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEB  IX. 

OoLDEN  Plover,  Cublkw,  Gray  Plover. 

Arrival  of  Golden  Plover  and  Curlew— First  Seen  on  Burnt  Prairies 
—Plover  like  Bare  Earth  and  Pastures— Golden  Plover  and  Cur- 
lew in  Flocks  Together— They  Follow  the  Plough— Lying  Down 
for  Plover— Plover  Shooting  from  a  Buggy— The  Method  of  It- 
How  to  Shoot  Plover  on  Foot— Plover  Circle  Bound  the  Wounded 
— An  Afternoon's  Shooting  near  Elkhart^Plover  Shooting  in 
Christian  County— Golden  Plover  Scattered— Past  Flyers  and 
Good  Practice — The  Upland  or  Gray  Plover— Last  of  Spring 
Migrants — Breeds  in  IlUnois,  Iowa,  etc. — Ready  to  Pair  when  It 
Arrives — Should  not  be  Shot  in  the  Spring — Nest  of  the  Upland 
Plover — DifBcult  to  Shoot  in  Autumn — Horse  and  Buggy  Needed 
—Flight  of  Upland  Plover— Sand  Snipe  and  Grass  Snipe,  .  149-167 

CHAPTER  X. 

Wild  Ducks  and  Western  Duck  Shooting. 

The  Prime  Western  Ducks — Beauty  of  the  Wood  Duck— Its  Rapid 
Flight — The  Mallard — Its  Excellence  and  Beauty — Comparison 
with  Canvas-Back — Mallards'  Nests — The  Flappers — Ducks  begin 
to  Arrive  by  Middle  of  February— Habits  of  Mallards  and  Pintails 
—Their  Vast  Numbers— Remain  Pour  or  Five  Weeks— Coming  of 
Ducks  in  the  Fall— Vast  Numbers— When  Cold  Sets  In— Heard 
in  the  Air  all  Night— Duck  Shooting  in  the  Com-Fields— Color  of 
Clothes  Important— Ducks  Wary  and  Far-Sighted— Method  of 
Shooting, 16&-182 

CHAPTER  XI. 
DuoKS  AND  Western  Duck  Shooting. 

Cold  Work  in  Hard  Weather— The  Illinois  River— The  Western 
Com-Pields— Shooting  in  Them  in  Fall— Osage  Orange  Hedges- 
Flight  of  Ducks  in  Wet,  Windy  Weather— In  Clear  Weather- 
Ducks  in  Flight  seem  Nearer  than  They  Are— Shooting  at  Prairie 
Ponds  and  Sloughs— Live  Decoys  Best— Dead  Duck  Decoys  bet- 
ter than  Wooden— Method  of  Setting  Dead  Mallards  as  Decoys- 
Duck  Shooting  in  the  Winnebago  Swamp— Duck  Shooting  in  Ford 
County— Mr.  M.  Sullivant's  Great  Farm— Duck  Shooting  on  the 
Sangamon— Shooting  from  the  Timber— Ninety-flve  Mallards  with 
No.  9  Shot  — Water  Fowl  Seek  Timber  in  Hard,  Windy 
Weather, 18»-197 


CONTENTS.  7 

CHAPTER  XII. 

WHiD  Geese,  Cbakes,  akd  Swaks. 

The  Canada  Goose  and  Brant  Goose— Mexican  Geese— Hutchinson's 
Goose— The  White-Fronted  Goose — The  Snow  Goose — Migration 
of  Wild  Geese— Flight  o(  Wild  Geese— Habits  of  the  Geese— First 
of  the  Spring  Migrants  —  Geese  on  Pasture-Lands — The  Best 
Shooting  Places — Means  of  Concealment— Shooting  on  the  Pas- 
tures from  a  Buggy — Long  Shots  at  Geese — The  Fall  Geese — In 
Wheat-Fields  and  Shocked  Com — The  Roosting  Places — Times 
■when  Geese  Resort  to  Timber — A  Flock  on  the  Ice — Getting  into 
the  River — The  Ague,  and  a  Remedy — Shooting  Brant  and  Mexican 
Geese — Great  Packs  of  Mexican  Geese— The  Cranes  of  the  West 
—The  Sand-Hill  Crane— Its  High  Flight  in  Spring— Feeding  on 
Com  in  Fall— The  Large  White  Crane — Wounded  Cranes  Fight 
Hard— Flesh  of  Cranes  when  Hung— Pelicans  and  Swans  on  the 
Mississippi, 198-222 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

Wild  Turkey  and  Deeb  SBOOTiNa. 

Elxcellence  and  Beauty  of  the  Wild  Turkey — Its  Haunts  and  Habits 
—Methods  of  Shooting  Turkeys— The  Wild  Turkey's  Nest— Track- 
ing Turkeys  in  Snow— Shooting  In  Thick  Snow-Storms — Shooting  at 
Crossing  Places— Tracking  Turkeys  on  the  Sangamon — Lost  in 
the  Timber— A  Walk  Home  of  Thirteen  Miles— The  Great  Gobbler 
of  the  Sangamon— Turkey  Shooting  on  Shoal  Creek— The  Cold 
Nights  in  Camp — Eleven  Turkeys  to  One  Gun  in  Half  a  Day — 
After  a  Wounded  Deer — Camping  Out  without  a  Tent — A  Heavy 
Thunder-storm  on  Delavan  Prairie— Deer  Shooting  in  the  West — 
Haunts  and  Habits — My  First  Deer— Deer  Shooting  on  Horse- 
back        223-250 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

The  Art  of  SnooTiNa  on  the  Wmo. 

The  Art  EasUy  Acquired— Boys  Should  begin  to  Shoot  Early — No 
Danger  of  Accidents — Loading  Guns— Large  Shot  and  Too  Much 
Shot  Mischievous— Guns  for  Boys — Handling  the  Gun — Loading 
the  Gun— Light  Loads  at  First — Shooting  at  a  Target — No  Shoot- 
ing at  Sitting  Birds — Shooting  Larks  and  Blackbirds — How  to 
Aim— Shooting  at  Toung  Grouse— The  Causes  of  Missing— How  to 
Aim  at  Crossing  Birds— Long  Shots— The  Shot  Towers  at  New 
York— The  Cartridge  Company  of  Bridgeport,        ,       ,       261-275 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

Spobtinq  Dogs— Bbeediko  and  BREASiKa. 

Setters  and  Pointers — Advantages  and  Drawbacks  of  Each— The 
Sharpness  of  Prairie  Grass — Cockle-Burrs  in  Setters'  Coats— Set- 
ters Retrieve  "Well  in  Water— Cross-Bred  Dogs — How  to  Breed 
Them— Their  Stoutness  in  the  Field — No  Timid  Dogs  Among 
Them — History  of  Fanny,  Daughter  of  a  Pointer  Dog  and  Setter 
Bitch— An  English  Pointer  not  to  be  Called  Off— He  Points  at 
Grouse  all  Night — Best  Age  for  Breaking  Dogs — Method  of  Break- 
ing—The Setter,  Jack— Dick,  Son  of  a  Pointer  Dog  and  Setter 
Bitch — ^Miles  Johnson  as  a  Breaker, 276-399 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

PlQKON  SHOOTINa. 

lily  Beginning  at  Pigeons — Match  against  Staunton — ^Against  A. 
Kleinman — Championship  of  Illinois — Match  to  Shoot  from  Buggy 
— Match  at  Five  Hundred — Match  to  Kill  One  Hundred  Consecu- 
tively— Match  against  Mr.  King— Match  against  Doxie — Sweep- 
stakes at  Chicago— Match  against  J.  Kleinman — Match  with  Ira 
Paine — Championship  and  Other  Matches — Matches  with  A. 
Kleinman — Match  against  Four  Marksmen — Advice  to  Members 
of  Shooting  Club — Suggestion  for  New  Rule— H  and  T  Traps — 
Scores  of  Championship  Matches — Scores  of  Exhibition  and  Other 
Matches— Conditions  and  Rules  of  Champion  Badges  and  Medals 
— Eulea  of  Pigeon  Shooting, 300-343 


PREFACE  BY  THE  EDITOR. 


In  the  following  work,  Captain  Bogardus  has 
placed  before  his  readers  all  the  knowledge  of  the 
haunts  and  habits  of  game-birds,  and  of  the  art 
of  shooting  on  the  wing,  which  twenty-five  years' 
almost  constant  pursuit  has  enabled  him  to  attain. 
It  is  conveyed  plainly  and  briefly,  but  fully  and 
without  the  slightest  reserve  or  qualification.  It 
was  deemed  that  this  full  communication  of  all 
he  knew  on  these  subjects  was  due  to  his  readers, 
when  he  resolved  to  appear  before  the  public  as 
the  author  of  a  book.  Few  men  have  had  an  ex- 
perience as  varied  and  as  large ;  none,  I  verily 
believe,  have  attained  as  much  knowledge  of  game, 
or  as  much  skill  with  the  gun. 

Of  late  years,  at  many  places  where  his  skill 
was  displayed,  he  was  often  urged  to  embody 
what  he  knew  of  game  and  of  the  art  of  shooting 
in  a  book,  in  order  that  sportsmen  whose  other 
avocations  prevented  them  from  paying  very  great 
and  prolonged  attention  to  those  subjects,  might 
reap  the  benefit  of  his   experience.     With   a   view 


10  PREFACE    BY    THE    EDITOR. 

to  comply  with  these  requests,  he  came  to  New 
York,  and  proposed  to  me  thal^  1  should  assist 
him  in  the  necessary  composition  of  the  work. 
Perceiving  the  vast  fund  of  practical  knowledge 
he  had  amassed,  and  knowing  that  the  book 
would  form  a  most  valuable  contribution  to  sport- 
ing literature,  I  gladly  acceded  to  his  proposal, 
and  the  result  of  our  combined  and  conscientious 
labors  is  now  before  the  public. 

I  believe  this  is  the  first  work  of  the  kind 
that  was  ever  undertaken  by  a  thoroughly  prac- 
tical man,  and  strictly  confined  to  the  knowledge 
and  information  derived  from  his  own  observa- 
tion. It  would  have  been  very  easy  to  make 
the  book  twice  as  large  as  it  is,  by'  copying, 
with  or  without  credit,  as  is  the  custom,  long 
extracts  and  descriptions  from  the  standard  authors 
of  natural  history  in  this  country,  but  to  what 
useful  end  1  These  matters  have  been  copied  by 
one  author  after  another  about  a  dozen  times 
already,  and  readers  have  been  so  provoked  by 
the  everlasting  repetition  of  Latin  names  for 
familiar  birds,  that  many  must  have  been  on 
the  point  of  pitching  the  pedantic  copy-books 
into  the  fire.  In  this  work  another  method  has 
been   followed    altogether.     Here   are  the   observa- 


PREFACE    BY    THE    EDITOR.  11 

tions  and  accumulated  knowledge  of  a  man  who 
has  been  practically  engaged  in  the  pursuit  of 
game  in  a  thoroughly  sportsmanlike  manner  for 
twenty-five    years. 

For  much  the  greater  part  of  that  period, 
Captain  Bogardus  has  maintained  and  brought  up 
his  respectable  and  interesting  family,  almost  solely 
by  his  gun.  From  that  fact,  I  concluded  that 
his  was  the  knowledge  and  experience  which 
would  be  valuable  and  instructive  to  sportsmen, 
young  and  old,  and  interesting  to  the  general 
public.  The  former  do  not  want  to  listen  to 
people  who  know  no  more  than  they  know  them- 
selves. The  latter  do  not  want  to  peruse  the 
work  of  a  man  on  any  subject  if  he  never  rises 
above  mediocrity,  while  they  gladly  welcome  the 
book  of  one  who  has  proved  himself  a  master 
of  his  art.  J^ecause  Captain  Bogardus  had  been 
able  to  live  for  many  years  solely  by  his  gun, 
he  was  of  all  men  best  qualified  to  enlighten 
old  sportsmen,  and  instruct  the  young  in  regard 
to  the  habits  and  haunts  of  game  and  the  art  of 
shooting. 

It  has  often  been  said  that  pinnated  grouse 
could  not  be  killed  by  the  gun  in  the  months  of 
November    and    December,   because    they   were    so 


12  PREFACE    BY    THE    EDITOR. 

wild,  and  this  alleged  fact  was  made  the  excuse 
for  the  trapping  and  netting  by  which  the  markets 
of  the  great  cities  are  mainly  supplied  with  that 
bird  in  those  months.  Hardly  one  out  of  twenty 
then  offered  for  sale  has  been  shot.  But  Captain 
Bogardus  proves  that  this  is  either  pure  inven- 
tion of  the  netters  and  trappers,  or  due  to  the 
imagination  of  those  whose  skill  with  the  gun 
being  small,  and  whose  knowledge  of  the  habits 
of  the  game  being  scanty,  have  failed  to  kill 
any  at  such  times  themselves.  He  tells  us  how 
he  killed  them  with  the  gun,  and  how  you  can 
kill    them  if    you   follow   his    instructions. 

It  will  be  seen  by  this  work  that  Captain  Bo- 
gardus has  been  a  sportsman  of  the  most  resolute 
and  persistent  character.  No  difficulty  deterred 
him,  no  fatigue  subdued  him,  no  misfortune  dis- 
heartened him,  when  he  was  out  with  his  dogs 
and  his  gun.  He  has  also  been  a  man  of  the 
closest  observation  and  of  much  reflection. 
Hence  his  philosophy  on  the  habits  of  birds  of 
pursuit  by  the  sportsman,  and  in  regard  to  the 
art  and  principles  of  shooting,  will  be  found 
especially   valuable   and   interesting. 

CHARLES  J.  FOSTER. 


Field,  Cover,  and  Trap  Shooting. 


CHAPTER  I. 

GENERAL    INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS. 

Within  a  comparatively  recent  period  the  num- 
bers of  those  who  follow  the  delightful  and  healthful 
sports  of  the  field  have  increased  almost  beyond 
calculation  in  this  comitry,  and  they  are  still  ra- 
pidly augmenting.  Among  all  those  sports  there 
is  none  so  easy  of  attainment,  and  certainly  none 
so  invigorating,  useful,  and  enjoyable,  as  the  pur- 
suit of  game-birds,  waterfowl,  etc.,  over  dogs,  or,  at 
flight  time,  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  haunts  of 
the  latter.  The  vast  extent  and  variety  of  our 
territory — woodland  interspersed  among  prairie,  pas- 
ture, and  cultivated  farms — the  great  abundance  of 
game  to  be  met  with  by  those  who  know  when 
and  where  to  seek  for  it,  and  the  many  kinds  to 
be  found  in  these  favorite  haunts  at  the  proper 
seasons,  afford  such  excellent  and  varied  shooting  as 
may  hardly  be  experienced  if  sought  for  anywhere 


14  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

else.  The  art  of  shooting  swift-flying  birds  on  the 
wing  is  of  comparatively  recent  origin  in  this 
country.  Years  ago  but  few  people  followed  it, 
and  they  had  mostly  acquired  their  skill  in  Europe 
before  they  came  here.  The  quickness  and  art 
necessary  for  even  moderate  success  were  almost 
comparatively  unknown  in  the  regions  where  such 
game  most  abounded,  and  they  were  in  a  great 
measure  deemed  w^orthless,  of  no  more  practical 
use  than  the  curious  tricks  of  a  juggler.  This  was 
not  unnatural.  The  backwoodsmen,  and  those  set- 
tlers who  had  made  lodgments  in  the  immense 
prairies  of  the  Western  States,  could  kill  a  buck 
with  the  rifle,  or  knock  over  a  fat  turkey  with  the 
same  arm  ;  and  those  who  had  old-fashioned  smooth- 
bores seldom  shot  with  anything  less  than  buck- 
shot, or  the  largest  sizes  of  other  shot.  Hence 
they  looked  with  a  sort  of  lazy  curiosity  akin  to 
contempt  upon  the  doings  of  the  men  who,  with 
good  guns  and  small  shot,  killed  "  little  birds,"  as 
quail,  plover,  woodcock,  snipe,  etc.,  were  denomi- 
nated. The  use  of  the  setter  and  pointer  wfs 
practically  unknown.  The  game  was  considered 
to  be  a  trifling  matter,  not  worth  the  powder  and 
shot  expended  upon  it.  The  latter  were  somewhat 
dear,    and   money    was   very  scarce.      The    hunters 


GENERAL    INTKODUCTORY    REMARKS.  15 

and  Indians  called  the  shot-gun  by  the  derisive  term 
"  squaw  gun,"  and  wondered  that  grown  men  should 
delight  in  its  use.  All  that  is  now  greatly  changed. 
Thousands  every  year  enjoy  sport  of  the  highest 
order,  and  fill  their  bags  in  the  most  artistic  man- 
ner, in  many  parts  of  the  country  where  shooting 
on  the  wing  was  formerly  unknown.  Shooting  of 
this  sort  once  enjoyed  is  never  willingly  relinquished 
altogether.  Those  who  are  able  to  afford  the  cost 
and  spare  the  time  from  their  avocations  in  the 
great  cities  impatiently  count  the  days  which  must 
intervene  before  the  time  comes  for  them  to  jump 
aboard  the  train  with  their  guns  and  their  sporting 
paraphernalia,  bound  to  the  shooting-grounds — the 
places  where  game  is  to  be  found  in  abundance. 
Arrived  in  these  sections,  and  meeting  with  old 
friends,  the  harassed  and  weak  grow  vigorous  again, 
and  the  strong  become  stronger.  The  consciousness 
of  skill,  the  confidence  begotten  of  success,  give  such 
a  spring  to  the  mind  and  nerves,  and  inflame  the 
ardor  of  pursuit  to  such  a  degree,  that  the  fatigues 
of  the  excursion  are  scarcely  perceived,  and  its 
privations,  if  such  they  may  be  called,  arc  laughed 
at  and  merrily  endured  till  speedily  forgotten.  The 
habits  of  the  various  kinds  of  game  are  a  subject 
of  great    interest   and    observation.      The    fine    and 


16  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

eager  instinct  of  the  dogs,  their  great  sagacity,  en- 
durance, and  patience,  are  remarked  with  pride  and 
admiration.  The  features  of  the  varied  landscapes 
— hill  and  vale,  woodland  and  riverside,  vast  prairies 
with  groves  and  fringes  of  timber  on  the  branches 
of  winding  and  meandering  streams,  broad  fields  of 
land,  now  in  pasture,  now  covered  with  brown 
stubble,  now  waved  over  by  the  green  flags  of  the 
corn,  tall,  strong,  and  a  place  of  refuge  for  quail, 
grouse,  etc. — afford  constant  pleasure  to  the  sports- 
man. And  after  the  labors  and  sports  of  the  day 
are  done,  the  camp-fire  beneath  the  trees,  on  the 
banks  of  a  stream  or  the  margin  of  a  little  lake,  is 
a  place  of  calm  recreation  and  repose.  You  may 
hear  the  call  of  the  night-birds,  and  the  low,  sup- 
pressed noises  of  the  nocturnal  animals  afoot  after 
their  prey,  but  neither  the  hoot  of  the  owl  nor  the 
howl  of  the  wolf  will  drive  slumber  from  the 
pillow  of  brush  upon  which  you  rest.  The  night 
brings  enjoyment  almost  as  pleasant  as  that  which 
was  the  recompense  of  the  exertions  of  the  day. 

Having  followed  shooting  for  twenty -five  years, 
mostly  all  through  the  differeiit  seasons,  and  some- 
times camped  out  as  much  as  three  months  at  a 
time,  never  sleeping  in  a  house  during  that  period, 
I  believe  I  have    a   sound    and    extensive    practical 


GKNERAL    INTRODUCTaRY    REMARKS.  17 

knowledge  of  the  matters  upon  which  this  book 
is  to  treat.  I  am  no  scientific  naturalist,  and  what 
I  know  has  not  been  derived  from  books.  I  camiot 
give  the  Latin  names  of  birds  of  game,  waterfowl, 
snipe,  woodcock,  etc.,  and  if  I  could  you  would  not 
care  about  them,  because  the  constant  repetition 
of  them  makes  no  impression  at  all  upon  the 
sportsman.  To  him  the  quail  is  simply  a  quail, 
the  pinnated  grouse  (commonly  called  prairie 
chicken)  is  a  grouse,  and  no  Latin  is  required 
to  make  him  understand  what  you  mean  by  a 
snipe  or  a  woodcock.  I  cannot  set  down  the  sci- 
entific names  by  which  naturalists  distinguish  the 
birds  of  which  I  shall  treat,  but  I  know  their 
haunts  and  habits,  and  I  can  tell  you  when  and 
where  to  seek  them,  and  how  to  kill  them  in  a 
sportsmanlike  and  satisfactory  manner. 

I  was  born  in  Albany  County,  New  York,  and 
began  to  shoot  at  fifteen  years  of  age.  I  was  then 
a  tall,  strong  lad,  and  have  since  grown  into  a 
large,  powerful,  sinewy,  and  muscular  man.  I 
have  always  enjoyed  fine  health,  had  great  strength 
and  endurance,  and  been  capable  of  much  exertion 
and  exposure.  When  I  began  to  shoot,  there  was 
a  good  deal  of  game  in  AUiany  County,  and  it 
chiefly    consisted    of    ruffed    grouse    and    wbodcock. 


18  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

which  are  difficult  birds  for  young  beginners.  I 
received  no  instructions  from  anybody,  but  I  pos- 
sessed a  quick,  true  eye,  and  steady  nerve,  and 
had,  as  I  believe,  the  natural  gifts  which  enable  a 
man  to  become  in  time,  with  proper  opportunity, 
a  first-rate  field  shot.  It  was  a  long  time  after 
that  before  I  ever  shot  at  a  pigeon  from  a  trap, 
and  I  confess  that  I  had  for  many  years  a  strong 
prejudice  against  that  sort  of  shooting.  There 
were  no  quail,  snipe,  or  ducks  about  Albany 
County  at  that  time,  and  it  was  not  until  I  re- 
moved to  the  West  that  I  became  familiar  with 
them  and  with  the  pinnated  grouse.  Seventeen 
years  ago  I  moved  to  Illinois,  and  settled  on  the 
Sangamon  River,  near  Petersburg.  It  was  more 
a  broken,  swampy  country,  with  much  cover,  than 
a  prairie  land  like  that  to  the  northwards  in  the 
State.  Game  of  all  sorts  was  in  vast  abundance. 
There  were  vast  numbers  of  quail ;  the  pinnated 
grouse  were  rather  numerous,  though  nothing  like 
as  much  so  as  upon  some  of  the  great  prairies ; 
ducks  and  geese  camie  in  immense  flocks  every 
spring  and  fall,  and  deer  and  turkeys  abounded. 
It  was,  too,  and  is  to  this  day,  one  of  the  best 
places  for  snipe  that  1  know  of.  It  was  a  para- 
dise   for   a   sportsman  J    and    as   for    the    snipe  and 


GENERAL    INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS.  19 

quail,  there  was  hardly  a  man  there  who  could 
kill  them  except  myself.  Lots  of  men  used  to 
go  out  to  see  me  shoot.  There  was  one,  a  great 
hunter  of  deer  and  turkeys,  with  whom  I  became 
very  intimate.  At  first  he  laughed  at  me  when 
he  saw  me  loading  with  No.  8  shot.  "  That  wunt 
kill  nothin',  stranger,"  said  he.  "  What  little  I 
do  at  quail  I  do  with  No,  1  shot,  and  for 
prairie  chicken  I  always  use  BBs.  You  can't  stop 
'em  with  anything  lighter." 

But  he  changed  his  opinion  when  he  found  by 
experience  that  I  could  kill  ten  to  his  one,  and  then 
it  was  the  old  story  of  the  fox  and  grapes.  "  Darn 
the  little  creatures,  I  say ! "  he  exclaimed ;  "  I 
got  no  use  for  'em  anyhow ! "  At  that  time  I 
used  to  stint  myself  in  quail-shooting  time  to 
twenty-five  brace  a  day.  When  I  had  got  them,  I 
gave  over  for  the  day.  Often  when  I  was  shoot- 
ing quail  in  the  oak  barrens  two  or  three  deer 
have  got  up  close  to  me.  I  shot  some  turkeys ; 
but  my  bag  was  mostly  made  up  of  quail  and 
pinnated  grouse  in  the  fall,  and  of  snipe  in  the 
spring.  There  were  snipe  in  the  fall  too,  but  not 
so  many.  Ducks  and  geese  were  plentiful  in  the 
fall  and  spring,  but  I  did  not  go  after  them  much 
at   that   time.     I   had  no  wagon   and   team,  and   a 


20  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

bunch  of  ducks  and  geese  is  very  heavy  to  carry. 
The  country  about  the  Sangamon  was  wild  and 
very  sparsely  settled.  Even  now  it  has  no  large 
population,  and  remains  a  great  resort  for  ducks 
and  geese,  a  fine  place  for  snipe,  and  the  quail 
still  abound.  There  was  a  fine  variety  of  ducks. 
The  bag  would  include  mallards,  bluebills,  pin-- 
tails,  green-winged  teal  and  blue-winged  teal,  with 
some  wood-ducks.  I  consider  the  mallard  the  best 
duck  we  have  in  the  West,  and  I  doubt  very  much 
whether  there  is  any  better  anywhere  else.  A 
great  deal  is  said  about  the  canvas-back,  and 
with  justice;  but  I  do  not  think  them  any  better 
eating  than  mallards  are  in  the  fall  of  the  year, 
when  they  come  on  large  and  fat  and  glorious  in 
plumage  from  the  wild  rice-fields  of  the  north- 
west, away  in  the  .British  territories. 

After  staying  on  the  Sangamon  about  two  years 
I  moved  to  Elkhart,  in  Logan  County,  where  I 
have  lived  ever  since.  It  is  in  the  heart  of  the 
State  of  Illinois,  a  hundred  and  sixty-six  miles 
south  of  Chicago,  eighteen  miles  northwest  of 
Springfield,  and  one  hundred  and  fifteen  miles  from 
St.  Louis.  It  was  then  a  grand  place  for  game, 
and  is  very  good  now  late  in  the  fall,  when  the 
pinnated  grouse  pack  and  partially  migrate.      Fif- 


GENERAL     INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS.  21 

teen  years  ago  the  prairies  there  were  but  sparsely 
settled,  and  not  one  acre  in  a  thousand  had  been 
broken  up.  The  grouse  were  in  immense  num- 
bers ;  the  quail,  though,  were  not  as  plentiful  as 
on  the  Sangamon  in  the  brushy  land  of  the  oak 
barrens.  There  was,  however,  and  is  now,  a  grove 
of  timber  six  hundred  acres  in  extent,  not  far  from 
the  town.  It  is  one  of  the  finest  in  the  State,  and 
in  it  and  on  its  borders  there  were  many  quail. 
This  grove  was  then  owned  and  still  belongs  to 
Mr.  John  D.  Gillot.  He  has  a  great  stock-farm, 
his  pasture-land  running  for  seven  miles  at  a 
stretch.  Being  a  man  of  great  enterprise,  as  well 
as  large  means,  he  planted  hedges  all  over  this 
estate.  They  have  now  grown  up,  and,  affording 
harbor  and  nesting-places  for  the  quail,  the  latter 
are  now  more  plentiful  in  that  neighborhood  than 
they  were  when  I  first  went  to  live  there.  At 
that  time  very  few  in  those  parts  used  the  double- 
barrelled  gun,  and  shot  over  dogs.  I  was  about 
the  only  one  who  followed  shooting  systematically 
and  thoroughly.  But  though  the  quail  in  that 
neighborhood  are  now  very  abundant,  they  are 
hard  to  kill.  The  corn  grows  very  tall,  and  as 
soon  as  a  bevy  is  flushed  away  thoy  go  for  the 
corn-fields.     Once    in  them,  with   the  stalks   stand- 


22  FIELD-SHOOTING. 

ing  thick  and  high  above  your  head,  you  can 
only  kill  birds  by  snap  shots  such  as  you  make 
at  woodcock  in  thick  cover.  You  can  find  them 
on  the  stubbles  and  in  the  pastures  at  the  right 
time  of  day,  but  when  you  have  fired  your  two 
barrels  at  them  they  are  off"  to  the  corn.  The  pin. 
nated  grouse  lie  in  the  corn  and  on  the  borders 
of  it  a  good  deal  too.  There  was  no  trouble  in 
killing  a  great  number  when  1  first  went  there. 
I  have  known  sixty  young  ones  to  be  killed  in  a 
morning  in  one  field,  not  more  than  a  quarter  of 
a  mile  from  Elkhart.  For  my  part,  I  am  very 
much  opposed  to  such  doings.  The  commence- 
ment of  the  shooting  season  ought  to  be  fixed  by 
law  a  month  later.  When  the  shooting  begins, 
the  birds  are  very  young,  though  of  good  size, 
and  do  not  fly  either  fast  or  far;  the  weather  is 
hot,  and  1  am  satisfied  that  above  half  of  those 
which  are  killed  are  spoiled  and  never  used.  At 
the  present  time  the  grouse  are  much  more  scarce 
about  Elkhart,  especially  young  grouse.  The  chief 
reason  is  the  want  of  good  nesting-places.  Except 
in  Mr.  Gillot's  extensive  pastures,  there  are  no 
good  nesting-places  left  of  any  account.  This  is 
what  causes  the  great  diminution  of  the  numbers 
of    pinnated    grouse.     They    are    so    prolific,    and 


GENERAL    INTRODUCTOliY    HEM  ARKS,  23 

their  food  is  so  abundant,  that  they  could  stand 
shooting  in  and  out  of  season,  and  even  the  trap- 
ping and  netting  Avhich  are  so  extensively  carried  on 
in  many  parts ;  but  Avhen  the  prairie  is  all  or 
nearly  all  broken  up,  )io  good  breeding-places 
remain,  and  young  grouse  are  not  to  be  found. 
Ilius  it  hixs  been  in  a  great  measure  about  Elk- 
hart. Late  in  the  fall,  Avheu  they  pack  and  come 
in  from  the  distant  prairies  M'here  they  breed, 
the  birds  seem  to  be  as  plentiful  or  nearly  as 
jilentiful  as  they  Avere  before.  About  the  last  of 
October  and  in  November  you  may  see  as  many 
as  five  hundred  in  a  pack.  They  are  then  strong 
and  wild.  Some  people  maintain  that  the  pin- 
nated grouse  do  not  migrate  from  one  place  to 
another.  I  am  certain  that  with  us  they  do. 
There  are  now  ten  times  as  many  about  Elkhart 
in  November  as  there  arc  in  September,  therefore 
the  bulk  of  them  are  not  bred  there.  Moreover, 
I  have  been  at  Keokuk  in  Iowa  late  in  the  foil, 
and  have  seen  the  grouse  coming  from  the  interior 
of  that  State  in  large  numl)ers,  and  flying  across 
the  Mississippi  River  into  Illinois.  They  are 
never  known  to  do  so  at  any  other  season,  and  if 
that  is  not  migration  I  do  not  know  what  it  can 
be.      The    river    there    is    so    wide    that     the     llijiht 


24  FIELD    SHOOTING, 

across  is  a  long  one  for  a  grouse,  and  I  think 
nothing  but  the  migratory  instinct  would  induce 
the  grouse  to  make  it,  unless  it  were  pressing 
danger.  Now  they  fiiee  the  danger  in  order  to 
make  their  migration,  for  the  people  shoot  at 
them  as  they  fly  over  the  town  to  cross  the 
river,  and  some  are  killed.  "I  think  they  no  doubt 
cross  the  Mississippi  at  many  other  points  to 
make  the  east  bank,  and  no  one  ever  sees  them 
return  to  Iowa.  Ducks  and  geese  are  not  so 
plentiful  about  Elkhart  as  they  are  on  the  San- 
gamon. Still  their  numbers  are  very  large  at  times. 
They  come  out  in  the  evening  to  feed  in  the  corn- 
fields, and  at  such  times  1  have  often  killed  twenty 
couple,  which  is  a  pretty  good  bag  for  one  gun. 
Snipe  are  now  scarce  in  the  neighborhood  of  Elk- 
hart. Cultivation  and  the  draining  of  swamp- 
lands have  converted  the  places  which  were  the 
iavorite  resorts  for  snipe  into  the  best  wheat  and 
corn  land  in  the  State.  The  change  of  condition 
in  the  land  is  the  chief  cause  of  the  dimmution  of 
game  of  various  sorts  in  particular  places.  It  has 
more  to  do  Avith  it  than  all  other  causes.  Al- 
though, the  pinnated  grouse  are  trapped  and  netted 
by  thousands,  as  •  well  as  shot  in  a  sportsmanlike 
manner,  it  would  not  of  itself  reduce    their   num- 


CENERAL    INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS.  25 

bers  so  as  to  be  greatly  perceptible.  Immense 
numbers  are  sent  East  which  are  taken  in  nets 
and  traps.  Some  are  killed  by  coming  in  contact 
with  the  telegraph  wires  in  their  flight.  But  all 
these  causes  would  be  inadequate  to  reduce  the 
stock  much  if  the  breeding  birds  had  the  nesting- 
places  which  they  formerly  used.  The  grouse 
used  to  breed  in  the  prairies,  commonly  along  the 
edges  of  the  sloughs.  In  many  parts  the  prairies 
are  nearly  all  broken  up  and  brought  under  cul- 
tivation. Many  now  make  their  nests  in  the 
fields  of  the  farmer,  and  these  nests  are  nearly  all 
broken  up  and  destroyed  by  the  ploughing  in  the 
spring.  Quail,  whose  nests  are  made  in  hedges 
and  corners  of  fences  and  under  bunches  of  bram- 
bles, escape,  and  we  see  them  increase  in  numbers 
in  the  very  places  where  the  grouse  diminish.  A 
great  source  of  destruction  to  the  nests  of  the 
grouse  might  be  easily  prevented.  In  most  places 
there  are  patches  of  prairie  left  for  pasture,  and 
in  these  the  birds  build.  Many  farmers  follow 
a  practice  of  burning  these  patches  over  late  in 
the  spring,  under  a  notion  that  it  improves  the 
pasturage  by  causing  the  young  grass  to  spring 
up  fine  and  succulent  as  soon  as  the  weather  gets 
warm.     When   these  patches  of  prairie  are  burned 


26  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

over,  there  are  commonly  many  nests  in  each, 
sometimes  scores  of  them,  and  they  are  half-full 
of  eggs.  This  cuts  up  the  supply  of  grouse  root 
and  branch,  and  reduces  the  numbers  to  a  serious 
extent  every  year.  It  is  a  great  mistake  on  the 
part  of  the  farmers,  for  the  grouse,  by  consump- 
tion of  grasshoppers  and  other  destructive  insects, 
is  one  of  the  agriculturist's  best  friends,  and  the 
grass  would  be  just  as  good  if  the  patches  of 
prairie  were  burned  over  late  in  the  fall,  when 
there  would  be  no  nests  destroyed.  It  is  to  be 
hoped  that  this  plan  will  be  adopted  for  the  fu- 
ture ;  and  I  think  it  will  be,  for  the  possession  of 
guns  and  sporting-dogs,  and  the  love  of  shooting, 
are  spreading  among  the  farmers  of  the  West,  and 
these,  after  all,  will  be  in  time  the  most  efficient 
preservers  of  the  game.  The  men,  such  as  my- 
self, who  go  every  fall  to  shoot  in  the  great  un- 
broken prairies  which  still  exist  in  Ford  County, 
Champagne  County,  and  about  there,  burn  the 
grass  themselves  late  in  the  fall,  and  thus  leave 
nothing  to  be  burned  the  following  spring  in  nest- 
ing-time. By  this  means  the  stock  of  grouse  is 
fully  kept  up,  and  it  is  from  thence  the  great 
packs  migrate  towards  the  last  of  October  and  in 
November.     Upon    this   subject   I    consider   myself 


GENERAL    INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS.  27 

competent  to  speak.  I  have  had  much  experience, 
and  have  conferred  with  many  practical  men 
"svhose  experience  is  nearly  or  quite  as  great  as 
my  own.  What  I  have  stated  I  know  to  be  true. 
No  doubt,  when  the  hen-birds  have  lost  their  first 
nests  by  the  plough,  or  by  the  much  more  destruc- 
tive burning  of  the  prairie  patches  late  in  spring, 
they  make  other  nests ;  but  these  also  are  often 
destroyed ;  and  if  they  are  not,  the  broods  are 
small  and  late,  and  quite  unable  to  take  care  of 
themselves  when  the  shooting  season  begins. 

The  best  spring  shooting  in  Illinois  is  snipe ; 
and  in  many  parts,  such  as  that  on  the  Sangamon 
River,  the  birds  are  found  in  abundance.  I  know 
of  no  better  ground  for  them  anywhere.  After 
the  snipe  come  the  golden  plover,  sometimes  in 
very  large  flocks.  This  beautiful  and  delicious 
little  bird  stays  with  us  some  three  or  four  weeks, 
and  the  sport  they  alTord  is  excellent.  They 
are  commonly  shot  from  horseback,  or  by  means 
of  a  wheeled  vehicle,  as  is  said  to  be  the  prac- 
tice in  the  Eastern  States.  You  must  be  a 
good  sportsman  to  fill  your  bag  with  them,  and 
there  is  no  better  practice  for  a  good  shot  than  at 
them.  After  remaining  with  us  about  a  month  the 
golden  plover  go  farther  north  to  breed.     The  up 


28  riKLD    SHOOTING. 

land  or  gray  plover  stays  with  us  and  breeds  in 
Illinois.  They  flock  to  some  extent,  but  not  in 
such  large  numbers  as  the  golden  plover  do.  I 
have  often  seen  as  many  as  four  hundred  or  five 
hundred  of  the  latter  together,  and  they  sometimes 
fly  so  close  in  the  pack  that  a  great  many  can 
be  cut  down  with  two  barrels  when  you  can  get 
within  fair  distance.  After  they  have  scattered  and 
run  before  they  fly,  the  practice  at  the  single 
birds  is  as  good  as  anything  for  the  education 
of  a  marksman.  The  upland  plover  are  more 
open  in  their  flight,  as  well  as  in  smaller  flocks. 
They  ought  not  to  be  shot  at  all  in  the  spring 
with  us,  for  they  do  not  arrive  from  the  South 
until  about  corn-planting  time,  and  then  they  are 
ready  to  pair  and  make  their  nests.  September 
is  the  proper  month  to  shoot  them.  They  are 
then  very  fat  and  delicious  for  the  table.  They 
frequent  the  great  pasture  I  mentioned  belong- 
ing to  Mr.  Gillot.  When  Miles  Johnson  of  New 
Jersey  was  in  Illinois  shooting  with  me  over  that 
ground,  he  said  he  had  never  seen  such  plover 
as  those  before — that  is,  for  size  and  fatness — and 
that  each  of  them  would  fetch  half  a  dollar  in 
Boston  market. 

Eight    or    ten    years    ago    the    American    hare, 


GENERAL    INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS.  29 

commonly  called  the  rabbit,  used  to  abound 
about  Elkhart.  I  and  another  man,  by  beating 
the  hedges,  one  on  each  side,  after  the  first  snow, 
when  there  was  about  four  inches  on  the  ground, 
once  killed  a  hundred  and  sixty  in  a  day.  They 
decreased  at  one  time,  but  recently  they  have 
been  getting  numerous  again,  and  there  is  now  a 
good  head  of  them.  The  abundance  of  game  in 
any  given  year  depends  very  much  upon  the 
breeding  season,  for  there  are  commonly  old  ones 
left  to  raise  a  good  stock.  If  the  spring  is  warm 
and  moderately  dry,  the  broods  of  quail  and 
grouse  are  large,  and  the  young  birds  grow  up 
strong,  so  as  to  be  able  to  fly  fast  and  go  a 
good  distance  when  the  shooting  season  begins. 
When  the  spring  is  cold  and  wet,  many  broods 
are  lost  through  the  nests  being  drowned  out. 
The  broods  which  arc  hatched  out  are  small,  and 
the  young  birds  have  a  hard  time  of  it  until 
summer  begins.  The  last  spring  was  a  very 
favorable  one  in  the  West,  and  grouse  and  quail 
are  numerous  and  strong.  Farmers  who  had  seen 
many  nests  of  grouse  told  me  that  in  most  in- 
stances every  egg  had  been  hatched  out,  and  ir^ 
June  I  saw  myself  as  many  as  twelve  young 
grouse    in   a  gang.     All    the   old   ones   that   I   ob- 


30  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

served  had  large  numbers  of  young  birds,  and  the 
latter  were  large  and  strong.  The  Western  coun- 
try abounds  with  hawks,  and  these  persecute  the 
quail,  grouse,  and  duck  very  much.  I  have  seen 
a  bevy  of  quail  in  such  desperate  terror  when 
pursued  by  a  hawk  that  they  dashed  against  a 
house  and  many  were  killed.  I  kill  all  the  hawks 
I  can,  and  often  let  a  grouse  go  unshot  at  in 
order  to  bring  down  a  hawk.  There  is  one  bird 
of  that  order  which  makes  great  ravages  among 
the  ducks.  It  just  kills  for  the  sake  of  killing, 
for  it  strikes  down  one  after  the  other.  It  is  a 
small,  long-winged  hawk,  very  muscular  and  strong, 
and  uncommonly  rapid  in  flight.  I  have  seen 
this  hawk  when  pursuing  ducks  strike  one  down 
and  let  it  lie,  going  on  after  the  others,  and 
continuing  to  harass  and  kill  until  the  prey  could 
reach  water.  This  hawk  does  not  consume  a 
fourth  of  the  grouse  and  duck  it  kills.  It  is  not 
large  enough  to  carry  away  a  good-sized  duck, 
and  I  doubt  whether  it  could  fly  away  with  a 
grouse  for  any  distance.  Eighty  miles  from  Elk- 
hart there  is  the  Winnebago  Swamp,  a  large  and 
wild  track  of  water,  moss,  and  cover.  Ducks, 
such  as  mallard,  teal,  and  widgeon,  breed  there 
in    large     numbers.       I    have    often    flushed    them 


GENERAL    INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS.  31 

from  their  nests  when  I  have  been  snipe-shoot- 
ing thereabout.  A  few  geese  breed  there  also, 
but  perhaps  these  are  only  those  which,  owing  to 
being  wounded  or  to  some  accident,  have  been 
unable  to  join  the  great  flocks  in  their  spring 
flight  towards  the  North.  From  what  I  am  told 
by  men  who  have  been  explorers  and  hunters  in 
the  service  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  no 
matter  how  far  north  Indians  or  white  men  may 
penetrate,  it  is  found  that  the  geese  go  farther  in 
the  summer,  and  bring  back  their  broods  in  the 
fall.  In  this  Winnebago  Swamp  I  have  occasion, 
ally  found  the  nest  of  the  sand-hill  crane,  and 
'^sometimes  that  of  the  blue  crane.  The  crane  builds 
its  nest  on  the  top  of  a  muskrat  house,  just  as 
the  geese  do  in  that  section.  It  lays  two  eggs, 
much  larger  than  those  of  a  goose,  especially  in 
length,  and  one  of  the  cranes  commonly  keeps 
watch  by  the  nest.  The  nests  of  the  ducks  are 
built  on  tussocks  of  grass.  The  Winnebago  Swamp 
used  to  harbor  many  wolves,  and  there  are  a  con- 
siderable number  there  yet.  Three  years  ago,  in 
company  with  a  hunter  named  ITenry  Conderman, 
I  found  the  den  of  a  she- wolf  in  tlie  swam}),  and 
we  took  her  litter  of  six  whelps.  Afterwards  we 
trapped    th'    old    one.     We    got    thirty-five    dollars 


83  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

from  the  county,  as  it  pays  a  bounty  of  five  dol- 
lars a  head.  The  gray  prairie  wolf  is  .  very  de- 
structive of  young  pigs,  lambs,  geese,  etc.,  and 
wolves  are  more  numerous  in  Illinois  now  than 
most  people  suppose.  Last  spring  Mr.  Gillot 
took  a  litter  of  five  whelps  in  his  grove  near 
Elkhart.  He  has  a  grand  wolf-hunt  every  sum- 
mer. The  men  who  have  hounds  in  the  neigh- 
borhood meet,  and  a  small  pack  is  got  together, 
with  which  we  hunt  the  grove,  and  there  is  nearly 
always  fine  sport.  Mr.  Gillot's  daughters  have 
fine  saddle-horses  and  are  good  riders.  With 
some  other  ladies  they  see  the  chase  from  the 
hills,  and  there  is  a  grand  time.  Last  summer  we 
ran  three  down  in  the  pastures  and  killed  them. 
Another  also  took  to  the  open,  and  was  killed 
after  the  hunt  was  over  in  one  of  the  pastures 
by  Mr.  L.  B.  Dean.  Thus  there  were  four  ac- 
counted for,  all  of  one  litter  and  about  half- 
grown.  But  the  old  wolves  got  away,  as  they 
usually  do,  for  our  hounds  are  not  able  to  run 
on  to  an  old  wolf.  They  go  very  fast,  keep  up 
their  lope  for  a  long  time,  know  the  ground  well, 
and  are  very  cunning  as  well  as  fierce  M'hen 
cornered  or  brought  to  bay.  Gray  foxes  arc 
numerous    with    us.     Eagles    arc    commonly    to    be 


GENERAL    INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS.  33 

found  along  the  creeks,  and  they  are  sometimes 
very  bold.  Last  winter  one  made  a  sudden 
pounce  and  grabbed  a  grouse  I  had  just  shot.  I 
gave  him  the  No.  6  shot  from  the  other  barrel, 
and  as  he  was  near  I  expected  to  see  him  fall, 
but  he  got  away  with  the  charge  without  the 
grouse. 

From  that  which  has  been  stated  in  this  intro- 
ductory chapter,  it  will  be  apparent  that  there  is 
no  trouble  in  finding  places  where  good  shooting 
may  be  had.  Even  where  there  are  no  pinnated 
grouse,  the  sportsman  may  find  plenty  of  work  for 
his  dogs  and  his  gun.  It  is  not  to  be  expected 
that,  in  parts  very  thickly  settled  and  populated, 
there  will  be  the  abundance  and  variety  of  game 
which  might  once  be  found.  Many  snipe-groundsi 
are  now  drained,  and  some  are  even  thickly  built 
over.  The  brakes  and  thickets  which  onco  held 
the  woodcock  have  largely  been  cut  up  and 
cleared  away.  Quail,  however,  are  more  nume- 
rous in  many  States  than  they  ever  were  before. 
The  shooting  at  them  is  excellent  in  most  of  the 
counties  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Kentucky, 
Iowa,  Missouri,  Wisconsin,  and  Minnesota.  North- 
ern Indiana  and  Michigan  are  also  famous  for. 
snipe   and    duck,    as    Illinois,   Iowa,    Missouri,    and 


34  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

Minnesota  are.  Perhaps  the  best  general  shooting 
is  to  be  had  in  Northeastern  Missoiu'i,  for  there, 
besides  grouse,  quail,  waterfowl,  etc.,  the  sports- 
man may  come  upon  wild  turkeys  and  deer,  and 
the  same  is  true  of  some  parts  of  Iowa.  Of  the 
best  places  for  game  in  the  Eastern  States  I  am 
not  so  well  acquainted,  and  I  shall,  therefore,  say 
but  little  about  them.  This  book  is  mainly  to 
relate  the  results  of  my  own  experience,  not  to 
gather  up  and  adopt  what  others  may  know. 


CHAPTER  II. 

GUNS  AND  THEIR  PROPER  CHARGES. 

I  coutD  never  see  any  use  to  the  shooter  in  a 
long  theoretical  or  practical  description  of  the 
principles  and  details  of  guns  as  they  are  made. 
All  such  knowledge  is  necessary  to  the  gunmaker, 
but  of  no  practical  use  at  all  to  the  shooter,  for 
which  reason  I  shall  say  next  to  nothing  about  it. 
It  is  no  more  essential  to  the  marksman  or  young 
sportsman  that  he  should  understand  the  mecha- 
nism and  mode  of  manufacturing  guns,  than  it  is 
that  he  should  determine  whether  the  Chinese  or 
Roger  Bacon  first  invented  gunpowder  before  he 
shall  fire  a  shot  off.  Sportsmen  may  safely  leave 
such  matters  to  the  guimiakers,  who  are  nearly 
everywhere  a  very  ingenious,  painstaking,  trust- 
worthy class  of  men.  There  is  no  handicraft  in 
which  more  care  is  displayed  or  more  ambition 
felt  to  excel.  The  improvements  and  ingenious 
devices  which  have  so  rapidly  followed  one  an- 
other of  late  years,  all  proceeding  from  members  of 
35 


36  FIBLD   SHOOTING. 

the  art  and  mystery  of  gunmaking,  establish  this 
beyond  doubt.  There  arc  plenty  of  men  among 
us  who  can  remember  when  nothing  was  in  use 
but  the  old  flint-lock  gun.  They  have  not  forgot- 
ten the  misfires  which  often  occurred,  when  the 
sportsman  was  left  staring  after  the  bird,  which 
flew  away  rejoicing,  and  impartially  distributing 
his  curses  between  the  flint,  the  lock,  and  the 
priming.  The  percussion-lock  with  its  detonating 
cap  was  an  immense  improvement,  and,  no  doubt, 
suggested  the  use  in  the  household  of  the  friction' 
matches  which  have  quite  superseded  the  old- 
fashioned  tinder-box  with  its  piece  of  flint  and 
steel.  Then  came  the  breech-loader,  an  invention 
of  enormous  value,  and  so  much  improved  upon 
since  its  first  discovery  and  application  that  upon 
this  principle,  with  various  details  of  construction 
for  opening,  shutting,  and  securing  the  piece  at  the 
breech,  the  most  convenient,  the  safest,  and  the 
best  guns  in  the  world  are  now  made.  A  few 
years  ago  many  good  sportsmen  would  have  dis- 
puted this  statement,  and  there  are  some  who  will 
do  so  now.  It  is,  however,  founded  upon  large 
experience  and  many  trials  of  the  breech-loader  in 
my  own  hands,  against  the  most  vaunted  muzzle- 
loaders    in     those    of  olher     good    marksmen    and 


eUNS  AND  THEIR  PROPER  CHARGES.       37 

sportsmen.  I  was  for  some  time  after  breech-load- 
ing guns  came  out  of  a  contrary  opinion,  but 
results  convinced  me  of  my  error.  Results  always 
convince  reasonable  men — that  is  to  say,  a  great 
preponderance  of  results.  When  such  a  man  has 
held  a  cherished  opinion  upon  what  seems  to  be 
sufficient  grounds,  he  does  not  abandon  it  all  at 
once  because  something  happens  which  seems  to 
tell  against  it.  He  tries  the  matter  again  and 
again,  and  when,  after  a  large  number  of  trials, 
there  is  a  great  preponderance  of  results  against 
his  preconceived  opinion,  he  changes  it.  Now  the 
fool  never  changes  his.  No  matter  what  happens, 
the  obstinate  blockhead  will  not  admit  of  change 
in  consequence  of  discovery.  His  motto  is,  "  What 
I  says  I  stands  to  ! " 

I  first  began  to  shoot  with  an  old  musket — flint- 
lock, of  course,  and  probably  one  of  those  specimens 
of  "  Brown  Bess "  which  had  been  used  in  wars 
against  the  French  and  Indians  before  the  Revolu- 
tion. I  was  then  a  boy,  and  soon  found  out  that  for 
the  game  about  Albany  County,  New  York,  "  Brown 
Bess "  would  not  do.  As  soon  as  by  hard  work 
and  careful  saving  I  had  got  together  twenty-five 
dollars  (twenty -five  dollars  was  rather  hard  to  get 
in  those  days)  I  bought  a  muzzle-loader.     It  was  a 


38  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

cheap  gun,  and  I  do  not  recommend  cheap  guns; 
but  when  a  man  cannot  afford  an  expensive  one, 
a  cheap  gun  is  a  good  deal  better  than  none,  or 
than  an  old  "  Brown  Bess "  musket.  For  some 
years  after  I  v/ent  to  Illinois  as  well  as  before,  I 
never  shot  with  any  but  common  guns.  I  killed 
plenty  of  game,  and  could  always  sell  a  gun  when 
it  was  pretty  well  worn  out  for  as  much  as  I  had 
paid  for  it.  Men  looking  at  the  size  of  the  bunch 
of  grouse  or  ducks  I  brought  in,  or  at  the  twenty 
brace  of  quail  to  which  I  stinted  myself  in  the 
oak  barrens  on  the  Sangamon,  thought  it  was  the 
gun  which  accounted  for  the  success,  and  were  ready 
to  buy  it.  Afterwards  I  got  a  Greener  gun,  one  of 
the  best  muzzle-loaders  that  I  have  ever  seen.  I 
paid  one  hundred  and  twenty -five  dollars  for  it, 
and  it  had  but  one  fault.  It  weighed  seven  pounds 
and  a  half,  which  is  too  light  for  my  estimate  of 
excellence.  It  kicked  when  pretty  heavily  charged, 
and  kept  my  finger  and  cheek  sore.  But  it  was  a 
close-shooting,  hard-hitting  gun,  and  when  the 
breech-loaders  came  out  I  would  not  have  swapped 
it  for  a  hundred  of  them.  I  thought  they  would 
not  put  their  shot  regular  and  close,  and  that  they 
would  lack  penetration.  1  have  since  completely 
changed    that   opinion.     I  was  then  ready  to   shoot 


GUN3  AND  THEIR  PROPER  CHARGES.        39 

with  the  Greener  gun  against  any  man  with  a  breech- 
loader, and  would  have  laid  all  the  money  I  could 
raise  that  I  beat  him  in  the  field  and  at  the  traps. 
I  might  possibly  have  done  so,  for  I  have  never 
yet  met  a  man  who  could  beat  me  in  field-shooting, 
but  the  breech-loading  gun  would  not  have  been 
the  cause  of  my  opponent's  defeat.  My  opinion  of 
breech-loaders  now  is,  that  they  excel  muzzle-load- 
ers in  three  or  four  particulars  of  the  very  greatest 
importance.  Of  course  I  speak  of  good  guns.  In 
the  first  place,  they  put  the  shot  closer  and  dis- 
tribute them  more  evenly  than  muzzle-loaders  do. 
Some  sportsmen  will  say  "  No  ! "  I  should  my- 
self have  said  No  once,  and  so  would  several  other 
noted  marksmen  I  can  name  who  were  afterwards 
convinced  by  me  against  their  wills,  and  liow  use 
no  guns  but  breech-loaders.  A  breech-loader  will 
also  shoot  as  hard  as  a  muzzle-loader,  provided  you 
use  a  little  more  powder.  My  breech-loading  guns 
have  shot  harder  than  any  muzzle-loading  gun  I 
ever  tested  them  against,  but  I  used  a  dram  more 
powder,  and  of  fine  quality  at  that.  I  think  I  was 
the  first  man  who  ever  stepped  up  to  shoot  a 
championship  match  at  pigeons  with  a  breoch-h jad- 
ing gun.  It  was  against  Ira  Paine,  on  Long  Island. 
I  was    defeated    in   the   match,  but  it  was  not  the 


40  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

fault  of  the  gun.  I  liked  that  so  well  that  1  agreed 
to  shoot  at  one  hundred  birds  every  day  for  a 
week  against  Paine ;  each  day's  match  to  be  inde- 
pendent of  the  others — a  hundred  birds  each  for  five 
hundred  dollars.  We  shot  the  first  of  the  six,  but 
as  I  killed  eighty  to  Paine's  sixty-two  he  paid 
forfeit  on  the  other  matches.  Since  then  I  have 
used  breech-loaders  altogether,  whether  for  match- 
shooting  or  in  the  field.  Besides  the  superiority 
of  their  shooting,  the  quickness  of  the  shots  when 
you  come  upon  birds  in  the  field  which  lie  well 
is  a  very  material  advantage.  The  greater  ease 
with  which  the  ammunition  is  carried  is  another; 
and  the  cleanliness  and  complete  absence  of  danger 
in  loading  is  a  further  great  point.  Many  accidents 
formerly  occurred  in  the  loading  of  muzzle-loaders. 
And  I  must  say  this  for  the  gunmakers,  even 
when  cheap  muzzle-loaders  were  in  use,  not  one 
accident  in  a  hundred,  in  my  experience,  was  ow- 
ing to  defects  in  the  barrels  of  the  guns.  Of  the 
few  which  burst,  nine  out  of  ten  were  either  im- 
properly loaded  or  the  charge  had  partly  shifted 
before  the  trigger  was  pulled.  The  fact  is  now 
and  always  was,  that  the  vast  majority  of  acci- 
dents with  guns  are  not  caused  by  bad  guns,  but 
by  bad   handling  of  guns  which  are  good   enough 


OUNS  AND  THEIR  PROPER  CHARGES.       41 

for  anybody's  use.  Another  great  thing  in  favor 
of  the  breech-loader  is  its  certainty  in  wet  and 
damp  weather ;  there  are  no  misfires  on  that  ac- 
count. The  first  cost  of  a  breech-loader  is  some- 
what larger  than  that  of  a  muzzle-loader  of  equal 
goodness  and  finish.  Formerly  the  cost  of  ammu- 
nition made  it  dearer  to  use,  but  the  employment 
of  metallic  cartridge-cases  has  changed  that.  They 
can  be  used  over  and  over  again,  and  I  have  used 
some  above  a  hundred  times.  Thus  the  expense  of 
ammunition  has  been  largely  reduced.  There  has, 
too,  been  a  great  reduction  of  late  in  the  price  of 
good,  strong,  exact-shooting  breech-loading  guns, 
and  they  will,  no  doubt,  soon  supersede  muzzle- 
loaders  altogether.  Many  of  the  superb,  highly- 
finished  and  fitted  guns  are  sold,  but  if  a  man  can. 
not  afford  to  go  to  the  highest  price,  he  can  find 
good  serviceable  weapons  for  less  money.  Still, 
as  a  good  gun  will  last  a  man  the  greater  part 
of  a  lifetime,  it  is  well  to  buy  the  best  you 
can  really  aiford  when  you  are  about  the  business. 
A  serviceable  breech-loader  can  now  be  got  for  a 
hundred  dollars ;  but  where  you  have  means  pay 
more  money  for  a  better  finished,  and  perhaps 
truer  and  more  durable,  article.  1  shoot  with 
a   gun   of  ten  gauge,  thirty-two  inches  in  the  bar- 


42  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

rels,  and  ten  pounds  weight.  This  is  a  gun  for 
all  sorts  of  uses.  It  will  stop  anything  that  flies 
or  runs  on  this  side  of  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
if  properly  charged  and  aimed.  Many  may  think 
ten  pounds  too  heavy  to  .  carry,  but  the  advan- 
tage of  a  good  solid  gun  m  delivery  of  fire  is 
very  great.  1  do  not  like  light  guns,  neither 
muzzle-loaders  nor  breech-loaders.  The  breech- 
loader I  am  now  using  was  a  three-hundred-dollar 
gun,  and,  considering  the  prices  they  were  selling 
at  when  I  bought  it,  was  worth  the  money.  It 
has  done  a  great  deal  of  work — much  hard  work 
— and  done  it  well.  I  have  shot  with  it  twelve 
times  in  matches  against  time,  undertaking  to 
kill  fifty  birds  in  eight  minutes,  and  have  won 
the  money  every  time.  I  have  also  killed  with 
it  fifty-three  out  of  fifty-four  birds  in  four  min- 
utes and  forty-five  seconds.  This  was  at  Jcrsey- 
ville,  Illinois,  twenty  yards  from  the  trap  and 
two  birds  in  the  trap.  II.  B.  Slayton  was 
present.  At  New  Orleans  1  killed  one  hundred 
and  eleven  out  of  one  hundred  and  eighteen  in 
seventeen  minutes  and  thirty  seconds,  and  picked 
up  my  own  birds.  I  have  shot  many  other 
matches  with  this  gun,  besides  using  it  in  a  A'ast 
amount    of    field-shooting    every    sprmg,    fiill,   and 


GUNS  AND  THEIR  PROPER  CHARGES.        43 

winter.  All  this  work  it  has  stood  well.  It  has 
never  been  to  a  gunsmith-shop  to  be  repaired, 
and  is  as  tight  at  the  breech  and  as  perfect  in 
the  opening  and  clasping  action  as  ever  it  was. 
These  facts  prove  conclusively  that  there  is  no- 
thing wrong  in  the  principle  of  a  breech-loader, 
and  that,  if  such  a  gun  is  properly  constructed, 
it  will  stand  as  much  wear  and  tear  as  a  muz- 
zle-loader. I  am,  however,  of  the  opinion  that 
shooting  the  time-matches  has  somewhat  impaired 
the  fine  shooting  qualities  of  this  gun  by  mak- 
ing the  barrels  so  hot.  I  fancy  it  does  not  now 
throw  its  shot  so  close  or  distribute  it  so  evenly 
as  it  did  before  the  barrels  were  heated  in  these 
matches.  They  got  so  hot  that  the  resin  broiled 
out  of  the  soldered  joints  along  the  rib,  and  in 
one  instance  burned  my  hand  through  a  buckskin 
glove.  To  shoot  well,  a  man  must  have  his  gun 
so  stocked  as  to  fit  him.  Some  require  a  longer 
stock  than  others.  Some  like  stocks  which 
are  nearly  straight,  while  others  can  shoot  with 
a  gun  the  stock  of  which  is  crooked.  It  depends 
mostly  on  the  build  of  the  man,  A  long-armed 
man  docs  not  want  a  gun  with  a  short  stock. 
A  man  with  a  moderately  long  neck  cannot  use 
a   gun    which    is    straight    in     the    stock    with    ease 


44  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

or  pleasure.  1  choose  a  stock  of  moderate  length, 
and  one  that  is  rather  crooked — one  with  a  drop 
of  about  three  inches.  This  sort  of  a  gun  comes 
even  up  to  the  shoulder  with  most  men,  and  you 
do  not  have  to  crook  the  neck  much  in  taking 
aim  with  it.  Some  people  pretend  that  there  is 
no  need  to  look  along  the  rib  at  the  bird  in 
order  to  shoot  well.  They  shoot  well,  and  they 
say  they  do  not  do  so.  I  believe  they  are  mis- 
taken. Taking  aim  does  not  mean  dwelling  on 
the  aim  and  pottering  about  in  an  uncertain  way 
with  the  gun  at  the  shoulder.  Even  in  snipe- 
shooting  there  is  a  distinct  aim  taken,  though, 
when  a  good-fitting  gun  is  brought  up  to  the 
shoulder,  the  aim  is  almost  instantaneous,  and  the 
discharge  follows  on  the  next  instant.  At  pigeons 
some  men  do  shoot  without  sighting  the  bird ; 
but  they  know  just  where  the  bird  must  fly 
from,  and  they  have  the  trick  of  covering  the  trap 
by  raising  the  breech  and  lowering  the  muzzle  as 
if  done  by  a  gauge,  and  then  they  blaze  away. 
Such  men  often  kill  the  bird  before  it  gets  on  the 
wing,  and  this  proves  that  practically  they  shoot 
at  the  trap  and  just  beyond  it,  rather  than  at  the 
bird.  This  sort  of  thing  is  impracticable  in  the 
field,  and    there,  if  not   everywhere   else,  the   man 


GUNS  AND  THEIR  PROPER  CHARGES.        45 

who  sights  his  bird  along  the  rib  of  his  gun,  in 
shooting  straight  forward,  makes  the  best  bag. 
There  are,  of  course,  some  situations  in  which  you 
must  practise  snap-shooting  to  get  any  shooting  at 
all.  At  woodcock  in  cover,  or  at  grouse  and  quail 
in  corn,  you  can  have  but  a  glimpse  of  the  bird 
you  shoot  at,  and  you  must  aim  just  where  intui- 
tion, as  it  may  be  called,  tells  you  the  bird  will 
be.  In  cases  where  the  bird  can  be  plainly  seen 
it  should  be  distinctly  aimed  at.  It  is  not  a  ques- 
tion of  quickness.  In  the  time-matches  where  I 
must  necessarily  shoot  very  quick,  and  in  those 
matches  where  I  stand  between  two  traps  forty 
yards  apart,  which  are  pulled  at  the  same  fime,  I 
sight  my  bird  before  I  pull  the  trigger.  If  I  did 
not,  I  could  never  accomplish  the  feats  which  have 
become  easy  to  me. 

There  arc  still  many  men  prejudiced  against 
breech-loading  guns,  and  some  who  have  given 
them  a  trial  remain  so.  But  in  most  of  these 
latter  eases  the  men  have  either  got  hold  of  a  poor 
gun,  or  do  not  know  how  to  load  a  good  one.  If  the 
cartridge  is  not  properly  filled,  wadded,  and  turned 
down,  the  shooting  will  be  inferior,  no  matter 
how  good  the  gun  may  be  or  how  skilful  the 
shooter.     Last  April  I  saw  a  match  shot  at  Frank- 


46  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

fort,  Kentucky,  in  which  one  man  used  a  breech- 
loader and  the  other  a  muzzle-loader.  As  soon  as 
they  began  to  shoot  I  saw  that  the  breech-loader, 
although  it  was  in  the  hands  of  the  best  man  of 
the  two,  would  be  beaten.  And  why?  Because 
his  cartridges  were  not  properly  filled.  The  wads 
on  the  powder,  instead  of  lying  flat  and  snug,  were 
often  partly  edgewise.  It  was  the  same  with  the 
wads  on  the  shot,  besides  which  the  cartridges 
were  not  well  turned  down  over  the  wads.  The 
shooter  who  had  lost  the  match  blamed  his  gun, 
which  was  a  light  one,  and  sent  for  one  of  ten 
pounds  weight,  like  mme.  But  if  he  is  as  careless 
in  loadmg  his  cartridges  for  the  heavy  gun  as  he 
was  Avhen  he  had  the  light  one,  the  shooting  will 
not  be  any  better  I  could  have  told  hmi  how  to 
win,  but  it  was  not  my  business  to  interfere  in 
the  matter.  The  shot  in  the  cartridges  should 
have  been  taken  out,  the  wads  sent  home  true, 
and  the  ends  of  the  cases  turned  down  close  after 
the  shot  was  replaced  and  evenly  wadded. 

The  first  time  1  visited  New  York  and  other 
Eastern  States  for  the  purpose  of  pigeon-shooting 
I  spent  some  days  with  Miles  Johnson,  of  Yard- 
ville,  Mercer  County,  New  Jersey.  He  is  a 
fiMnous  ])igoon-shooter  and  an  excellent  field  sports- 


GUNS  AND  THEIR  PROPER  CHARGES.        47 

mail.  Few  men,  if  any,  know  better  how,  when, 
and  where  to  make  a  good  bag  of  woodcock, 
snipe,  or  quail.  Now,  Miles  had  a  number  of 
crack  muzzle-loaders,  expressly  for  shooting-matches, 
and  he  was  confident  no  breech-loader  could  equal 
them  in  pattern  and  penetration.  I  remarked  that 
I  had  a  good  gun,  and  would  shoot  against  him 
and  his  best  muzzle-loader  at  a  target.  Miles 
declared  with  some  heat  and  vociferation  that 
"  he'd  be  — "  if  I  could  beat  him  in  shooting  at  a 
target  at  all,  let  alone  using  a'  breech-loader 
against  the  most  famous  of  his  muzzle-loaders. 
However,  taking  paper  for  targets  and  our  guns, 
we  repaired  to  an  old  barn  near  Yardville,  and 
shot  at  them.  Mr.  Nathan  Dorsey  was  present.  I 
beat  Miles  very  easily,  and  with  an  ounce  of  shot 
put  more  pellets  in  the  target  from  the  breech- 
loader than  he  did  with  an  ounce  and  a  half  from 
his  muzzle-loader.  Miles  hardly  knew  what  to 
make  of  it,  but,  perceiving  that  the  penetration  of 
my  shot  was  also  good,  ho  finally  acknowledged 
that  a  good  breech-loader  would  beat  any  other 
sort  of  gun  in  shooting,  and  he  now  shoots  with 
one  himself  And  thus  it  will  be  found  in  almost 
every  case.  When  a  man  has  strong  precon- 
ceived opinions,  it   is   of  very  little    use    to   argue 


48  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

with  him.  The  cfTectual  thing  is  to  show  him 
that  he  is  in  error  by  actual  demonstration  of  the 
facts  in  his  j^rcsence.  Nothing  but  actual  experi- 
ence would  have  convinced  me  at  one  time  that  a 
breech-loader  would  shoot  as  well  as,  or  better  than, 
a  first-rate  muzzle-loader.  Now  1  know  the  fact. 
I  convinced  Abraham  Kleinman,  of  Calumet,  Illi- 
nois, in  the  same  practical  manner  He  is,  in  my 
opinion,  the  best  duck-shooter  in  the  country,  and 
one  of  the  best  at  pigeons  from  the  trap.  His 
brothers,  John  and  Henry,  are  also  good  shots'. 
They  had  used  muzzle-loaders  all  their  lives,  and 
could  not  be  persuaded  that  breech  loaders  were 
good  until  Abraham  found  that  I  could  beat  him 
and  use  one.  He  then  got  one  himself,  and  John 
and  Henry  soon  followed  his  example.  Nearly 
all  the  good  shots  in  Illinois  now  prefer  the 
breech-loading  gun.  Some  held  out  against  it  for 
a  long  time  on  the  ground  that  it  was  new — as  if 
every  good  thing  which  is  old  had  not  been  new 
itself  one  time.  Not  very  long  ago  the  percussion- 
lock  was  new.  Again,  some  people  have  a  pre- 
judice as  to  breech  loaders,  believing  them  to  be 
defective  in  the  very  points  wherein  they  excel. 
On  the  seventh  and  eighth  of  last  April  I  shot  at 
Frankfort,    Kentucky,    for     sweepstakes.      All     the 


GUNS  AND  THEIR  PROPER  CHARGES.       49 

subscribers  except  myself  had  muzzle-loading  guns. 
It  was  a  wet,  damp  day,  and  my  opponents 
had  got  it  into  their  heads  that  the  breech- 
loader would  often  .  miss  fire  in  such  weather. 
They  therefore  insisted  upon  a  change  in  their 
rules  so  as  to  provide  that  when  the  gun  missed 
fire  it  should  be  a  lost  bird,  no  matter  how  well 
the  gun  might  have  been  loaded.  I  must  admit 
that  I  chuckled  inwardly  as  I  agreed  to  this 
change.  I  knew  the  weather  might  aflfect  their 
caps,  but  that  it  could  not  impair  mine  in  the 
cartridges.  We  shot  the  first  day;  the  muzzle- 
loaders  missed  fire  several  times,  while  my  breech- 
loader never  missed  fire  at  all.  The  upshot  of  it 
was  that  for  the  second  day's  shooting  they  de- 
manded the  repeal  of  the  new  rule,  so  that  they 
could  have  another  bird  after  a  misfire,  if  the 
gun  was  properly  loaded  and  capped.  I  could,  of 
course,  have  resisted  this  demand  eflTectually  ;  for 
when  in  such  a  case  action  has  begun,  there  can 
be  no  change  in  rules  or  conditions  without  the 
unanimous  consent  of  all  concerned  as  principals. 
But  I  agreed  to  the  change,  and  won  both  stakes. 
A  good  breech-loader  will  shoot  as  Avell  in  wet 
weather  as  in  fair  weather,  and  there  will  be  no 
misfires   on   account   of  damp.      But  if  there   is   a 


50  FiEU)  mioofwa. 

defect  in  the  action  of  the  plunger*,  ao  that  it  does 
not  strike  square  on  the  cap,  there  will  be  mis- 
fires in  any  weather,  "Diis  is  a  point  which  needs 
particular  attention  in  the  choice  of  a  gun.  As  I 
said  before,  I  shoot  with  a  gun  of  ten  pounds  weight 
now,  and  prefer  it  much  to  those  of  seven  and  a 
half  pounds,  with  which  I  used  to  shoot  formerly. 
But  some  think  a  gun  of  ten  pounds  too  heavy  to 
carry  through  a  long  day  Mid  use  in  all  sorts  of 
ground.  For  many  a  lighter  gun  would  be  better 
for  woodcock-shooting,  and  for  grouse  and  quail 
in  tall  com.  But.  I  would  not  recommend  any 
one  to  get  a  gun  of  less  weight  than  seven  and  a 
half  pounds  for  general  shooting  and  good  service. 
If  in  choosing  a  gun  you  are  in  doubt  concerning 
the  weight  which  will  suit  you,  give  the  gun 
the  benefit  of  it,  and  take  one  a  pound 
heavier  than  you  have  had  before,  if  it  weighed 
seven  and  a  half  pounds  or  less.  A  man  soon 
gets  used  to  the  extra  pound  in  the  weight  of  his 
gun,  and  carries  and  uses  it  as  easily  as  he  did  the 
lighter  one,  w^hile  the  shooting  of  it  will  be  much 
nicer  and  more  pleasant,  and  the  bag  of  game 
will  be  larger.  The  question  is  one  of  conve- 
nience, hardly  of  strength ;  for  any  man  fit  to 
go  into  tlie  field   at  all   can   carry  and  use   a  guu 


GUNS   AND   ffifilfi    PftOfiS*  CHARGES.  51 

of  eight  pounds  weight.  It  is  true  that  until  ffien 
have  worked  themselves  into  some  condition  they 
will  get  tired  in  tramping  over  the  prairies  and 
fields  and  through  the  coverts  carrying  such  a 
gun,  but  so  they  would  if  they  carried  nothing 
but  a  cane. 

In  loading  ft  gun  of  ten  gauge  for  gtouse  I  put 
into  my  cartridges  four  and  a  half  or  five  drams 
of  powder  atxd  an  ounce  of  No.  9  shot,  in  the 
early  part  of  the  season.  Later  on  I  use  No.  8 
shot,  and  still  later  No.  7.  In  November  and 
December,  for  the  shooting  of  grouse  and  duck, 
1  charge  with  No;  6.  Some  use  larger  shot  for 
ducks,  but  a  charge  of  No.  6  from  a  good  gun, 
well  held,  will  stop  a  duck  as  far  off  as  seventy 
yards  sometimes.  With  a  strong  charge  of  pow- 
der and  shot  of  moderate  size  there  is  greater 
penetration,  and  a  better  chance  of  hitting  besides. 
When  1  go  out  expressly  for  brant  and  geese,  1 
load  my  cartridges  with  No.  2;  but  when  out  for 
general  shooting,  I  have  killed  many  brant  and 
some  geese  with  No.  6.  For  quail-shooting  I  use 
No.  8  or  No.  9;  for  plover,  No.  8;  for  snipe. 
No.  10.  For  wild  turkeys  I  once  preferred  shoot- 
ing with  a  rifle,  but  I  now  Use  the  breech-loading 
shot-gun    with     No.     ?     shot    in     the     cartridges. 


52  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

With  such  a  gun  and  ammunition  I  have  killed 
as  many  as  eleven  in  one  forenoon.  For  field- 
shooting  and  match-shooting  I  have  hitherto  used 
what  is  called  Dead  Shot  powder,  and  have  found  it 
very  good.  I  have,  however,  since  given  a  thorough 
test  to  the  Orange  Powder  made  by  the  Laflin 
and  Rand  Powder  Company,  I  found  the  Orange 
Ducking  and  Orange  Lightning  Powder  the  best 
for  giving  penetration  that  I  have  used,  and  as 
good  for  making  pattern  as  any.  I  shot  it  from 
my  own  gun,  and  can  conscientiously  and  strongly 
recommend  it.  They  make  lower  grades  of  pow- 
der nearly  as  good,  but  the  sportsman  had 
better  buy  the  sorts  mentioned.  In  champion 
matches  I  use  paper  cases  for  the  cartridges,  and 
put  in  five  drams  of  powder,  with  two  pink-edged 
wads  over  it.  They  must  be  forced  down  square 
and  level  upon  the  powder  with  a  rammer,  but 
not  rammed  too  hard.  An  ounce  and  a  half  of 
No.  9  shot  is  then  put  in,  evenly  placed,  and  a 
thin  wad,  or  the  half  of  a  split  pink-edged  wad, 
is  pressed  down  firmly  and  evenly  upon  the  shot. 
The  cartridge  is  then  to  be  turned  down  smoothly 
and  closely  on  the  upper  wad.  In  matches  and 
in  field-shooting  I  always  have  used  the  shot  made 
by  Tatham  &  Brother,  of  New  York,  when  it  was 


GUNS  AND  THEIR  PROPER  CHARGES.        53 

possible  to  get  it.  When  I  shot  the  championship 
match  against  Abraham  Kleinman,  of  Calumet,  at 
Chicago,  there  was  none  of  Tatham's  shot  of  the 
right  number  in  the  city.  Being  determined  to 
shoot  with  no  other,  if  I  could  help  it,  I  tele- 
graphed to  Detroit  for  a  bag,  and  it  was  sent  on 
by  express  in  time  for  the  shooting.  I  killed  all 
my  hundred  birds,  and  only  seven  fell  out  of 
bounds.  I  decidedly  prefer  No.  9  shot  to  any 
other  number  at  the  trap.  For  field-shoot- 
ing 1  employ  metallic  cartridge-cases ;  they  shoot 
well  and  are  cheap,  as  they  can  be  used  many 
times  over.  The  paper  ones  shoot  a  little  the 
best,  but  a  bird  or  two  in  field-shooting  is  a  mere 
nothing,  and  metal  cases  do  well  enough.  I  load 
tiiem  with  five  drams  of  powder  and  07ie  pink- 
eclgod  M^ad  square  down  upon  it,  and  the  same 
as  to  the  shot.  I  einploy  wads  two  sizes  larger 
than  the  bore  of  the  gun.  Thus,  for  a  ten-gauge 
gun,  No.  8  wads.  This  is  necessary  to  keep  them 
firm,  so  that  the  charge  may  not  start  in  one 
barrel    when    the    other    is    fired.       Even   with    the  . 

A 

largo,  tight  wads  in  the  cartridges  it  is  best  to 
fire  the  barrels  as  nearly  alternately  as  may  be. 
It  will  not  do  to  shoot  one  barrel  four  or  five 
times  with  the  charcre  in  the  other  all  the  while.  . 


54  PIBtD   SHOOTINGF. 

I  believe  there  is  nothing  more  needful  to  be 
said  concerning  guns,  ammunition,  and  loading. 
It  will  have  been  seen  that  I  believe  in  the 
necessity  of  large  charges  of  good,  strong  powder 
more  than  in  the  efficacy  of  very  large  shot.  The 
smaller  shot,  as  I  believe,  are  driven  at  higher 
velocities,  and  have  greater  penetration,  than  larger 
ones.  Besides,  the  number  of  pellets  to  the 
weight  of  the  charge  is  a  very  material  thing. 
The  more  there  are,  the  more  will,  in  all  pro- 
bability, be  put  into  the  bird  shot  at.  But,  as 
a  matter  of  course,  in  following  this  principle  a 
man  is  not  to  run  into  extremes  and  use  very 
small  shot  for  large  game.  On  the  other  hand, 
he  is  not  to  be  too  ready,  when  the  birds  are 
not  brought  to  bag,  to  lay  it  to  the  fault  of 
small-sized  shot.  No  shot  is  big  enongh  to  stop 
a  bird  without  hitting  him ;  and  before  changing 
the  size  of  the  shot  or  finding  fault  with  the 
gun,  it  will  be  better  to  endeavor  to  mend  and 
improve  the  aim. 


CHAPTER   III. 

PINNATED-GROUSE    SHOOTINO. 

The  pinnated  grouse,  commonly  called  prairie, 
chicken  where  it  is  most  abundant  in  the  West,  is 
a  handsome  bird,  weighing  from  two  pounds  to 
two  and  a  half  pounds,  sometimes  nearly  three 
when  it  has  reached  mature  size.  It  is  a  delicious 
bird  on  the  table,  either  when  split  and  broiled 
while  young,  the  flesh  being  then  white,  or  roasted 
when  of  full  size.  It  formerly  prevailed  in  New 
Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Long  Island,  and  Kentucky, 
in  parts  where  there  were  open  heaths;  but  it  is 
not  now  found  until  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi 
i.3  reached.  There  are  none  in  Ohio,  but  few  in 
Indiana  and  Michigan;  but  it  is  plentiful  in  Illi- 
nois, Iowa,  Minnesota,  Kansas,  Nebraska,  and  parts 
of  Missouri  and  Wisconsin.  The  pinnated  grouse 
is  a  bird  of  the  grassy  plains  and  great  prairies, 
and  does  not  frequent  the  woodland,  save  on  frosty 
mornings,  when  it  may  be  seen  perched  on  trees 
near  the  edges  of  the  groves.  At  such  times,  too, 
it  will  be  seen  perched  on  fences  and  corn-shocks. 

65 


56  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

On  such  mornings,  when  the  weather  is  still  as 
well  as  chilly,  the  grouse  may  be  heard  cackling 
and  chattering  in  the  timber-land  for  a  consider- 
able distance  inwards,  but  on  other  occasions 
they  never  resort  to  the  groves.  This  bird  is 
certainly  of  much  service  to  the  agriculturist,  as 
it  consumes  many  grasshoppers  and  other  de- 
structive insects,  while  the  little  wheat,  corn,  and 
oats  it  eats  does  not  amount  to  anything  by 
comparison.  Indeed,  its  food,  before  the  wheat- 
land  is  in  stubble,  is  probably  wholly  composed 
of  insects  and  the  buds  of  heather  and  other 
plants  to  be  found  in  the  prairies  and  in  the 
spacious  pastures  of  the  West.  Before  the  great 
prairies  of  Illinois  and  other  Western  States  were 
broken  up  by  the  plough  of  the  settler,  the 
grouse  were  more  numerous  than  they  are  now, 
and  they  could  not  have  fed  on  grain,  because 
there  were  no  fields  of  grain  within  hundreds  of 
miles  of  them.  It  is  the  same  now  in  those  parts 
where  the  prairies  are  still  extensive,  and  on  the 
great  pastures  where  droves  of  bullocks,  hundreds 
strong  in  number,  are  fatted  for  the  Eastern  mar- 
kets. It  is  my  firm  belief,  from  observations 
made  for  many  years  about  the  time  of  the 
breeding  season,  that  the  pinnated   grouse   is  poly- 


PINNATED-GROUSE    SHOOTING.  57 

gamous,  like  our  domestic  cOcks  and  hens.  I  have 
never  seen  them  paired  off  as  quail  are.  Early 
in  the  spring  the  cocks  are  together  in  gangs. 
They  get  on  hilly  places,  swell  out  their  necks, 
and  make  a  booming  noise,  which  can  be  heard  at 
a  considerable  distance.  At  this  time,  too,  they 
fight  with  each  other  like  game-cocks.  The  hens 
at  the  same  season  are  to  be  found  in  gangs,  but 
not  on  the  same  ground  as  the  cocks.  While 
the  latter  congregate  on  the  hills  the  hens  remain 
on  the  prairie,  and  go  into  the  corn-fields  to  feed. 
A  great  deal  of  corn  remains  standing  all  the 
winter  in  the  West,  and  is  not  shucked  until  it  is 
time  to  plough  and  plant  again.  The  grouse 
mostly  roost  in  the  long  grass  of  rich  bottom- 
lands. About  the  last  of  April  and  beginning  of 
May  the  hens  make  their  nests.  I  have  found 
one  on  the  tenth  of  May  containing  as  many  as 
eight  eggs.  The  nest  is  made  on  the  gi'ound,  and 
formed  of  a  little  grass,  and  is  a  good  deal  like 
that  of  a  domestic  hen  when  she  makes  one  in 
the  fields.  When  the  hen-grouse  can  conveniently 
got  to  the  prairie,  they  build  in  that  grass.  Wheu 
thoy  cannot,  they  builJ  in  the  fields,  and  often 
in  patches  of  weeds.  In  the  bottoms,  which  are 
generally  wet  at  that  season,  the  nests  are   niade. 


58  FIELD   SHOOTING. 

oti  tussocks  of  thick  gfass  which  rise  above  the 
surface.  When  the  weather  happens  to  be  wet 
about  the  last  of  May,  many  nests  in  the  bottom- 
lands are  overflowed,  and  the  young  which  may 
have  been  hatched  mostly  perish  by  cold,  starva- 
tioiij  or  drowning.  The  hens  which  have  had 
their  nests  destroyed  by  floods,  by  prairie-burn- 
ihgj  of  by  the  plough,  commonly  build  again,  but 
their  broods  are  late,  and  usually  of  small  num- 
ber. The  hen  lays  from  twelve  to  eighteen  eggs, 
white  in  color,  and  about  the  size  of  those  of  a 
bantam  hen.  The  hen  sets  twenty-one  days,  the 
same  as  barn-door  fowl.  The  young  run  as  sooti 
as  hatched;  and  if  a  man  or  a  dog  should  go  near 
where  they  are,  they  will  hide  and  skulk  under 
the  grass,  even  on  the  first  day,  while  the  old 
hen  will  try  to  lead  the  intruder  away.  They 
feed  on  insects  for  the  most  part,  the  old  hens 
catching  them  at  first  for  the  young  chicks.  The 
latter,  however,  soon  learn  to  catch  them  for 
themselves.  As  they  grow  larger,  they  feed  a 
good  deal  on  herbage.  The  young  increase  in  size 
very  rapidly.  They  are  not  hatched  until  early 
in  June,  at  the  earliest ;  and  on  the  fourth  of  July, 
in  a  favorable  season,  I  have  seen  broods  which 
were   half  grown.      The    breeding-time   varies    ac- 


PINNATED-GROUSE    SHOOTING.  59 

cording  to  the  season  and  the  situation,  hut  every 
year  there  are  some  broods  fearly,  some  late,  and 
some  very  late,  the  latter  being  brought  off  by 
hens  which  have  lost  their  first  nests.  By  the 
fifteenth  of  August  some  of  the  broods  are  about 
full  grown  ;  but  they  are  then  tame,  and,  having 
grown  so  rapidly,  are  weak  on  the  wing,  and  soon 
tire.  I  believe  hybrids  have  been  produced  by 
the  hen-grouse  and  the  bantam  cock.  Last  spring, 
at  Omaha,  Nebraska,  I  saw  in  the  possession  of 
Mr.  George  A.  Hoagland,  President  of  the  Shoot- 
ing Club,  a  bird  of  the  preceding  year,  which  had 
been  shot  out  of  a  covey  of  seven  or  eight.  This 
bird  was  believed  to  be  a  hybrid.  There  was 
another  of  the  same  brood  in  the  town,  and  both 
were  well  stuffed  and  set  up.  All  the  brood  were 
alike  as  to  markings  and  appearance.  Their  size 
was  that  of  a  grouse  two-thirds  grown.  In  shape 
they  were  more  like  the  bantam  or  barn-door 
fowl  than  the  grouse.  The  ground  color  of  their 
plumage  was  a  dingy  white,  but  they  were  spangled 
all  over  with  feathers  colored  and  barred  like 
those  of  grouse.  That  they  were  hatched  by  a 
hen-grouse  is  unquestionable,  for  she  was  often 
seen  with  them.  She  made  her  nest  close  to  a 
house,   and   it   was    biilioved    that    a   domestic   cock 


60  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

was  the  father  of  her  young  ones.  Albinos  of  the 
grouse  species  are  sometimes  seen,  but  those 
above  referred  to  were  not  at  all  like  Albinos. 
There  is  a  very  beautiful  specimen  of  the  Albino 
at  the  Grand  Central  Hotel  at  Omaha,  and  the 
supposed  hybrids  did  not  resemble  it  in  the  least. 
1  was  informed  that  this  brood  of  spangled  grouse 
or  hybrids  were  exceptionally  wild.  But  for  all 
that  most  of  them  were  shot,  though  but  two  pre- 
served. These  birds  are  still  to  be  seen  at  Omaha, 
and  it  might  be  well  for  a  scientific  naturalist  to 
examine  them. 

The  game-law  of  Illinois  allows  the  shooting 
of  grouse  to  commence  on  the  fifteenth  of  Au- 
gust, and  in  some  States  it  is  suffered  to  begin 
as  early  as  the  first  of  that  month.  Both  these 
dates  are  too  early.  The  first  of  September  would 
be  quite  soon  enough,  and  most  sportsmen  would 
prefer  that  date.  As  the  law  now  stands,  nearly 
all  begin  to  shoot  early ;  for  as  some  will  do  so,  it 
cannot  be  expected  that  many  others  will  refrain. 
On  the  fifteenth  of  August  some  broods  of  grouse 
are  full  grown,  but  the  great  majority  are  not, 
and  many  broods  are  not  more  than  half  grown, 
while  some  are  so  small  as  to  be  almost  unable 
to   fly.     These  are  the  broods  of  birds  whose  first 


PINNATED-GROUSE    SHOOTING.  61 

nests  were  broken  up  in  the  spring.  I  never 
shoot  at  these  half-callow  young,  but  there  are 
plenty  of  people  who  do.  The  early -grouse  shooting 
is  very  good  practice  for  young  beginners  with 
the  gun,  as  they  lie  until  you  are  near  them,  and 
fly  slowly.  But  it  would  be  just  about  as  good 
if  the  shooting  was  deferred  fifteen  days  later  by 
law,  as  the  birds  would  still  lie  close  and  fly 
slowly.  The  early  shooting  makes  the  birds  wild 
before  they  would  otherwise  become  so,  and  it 
brings  many  to  the  bag  half  grown  that  would, 
under  other  circumstances,  be  bagged  full  grown. 
In  the  early  part  of  the  season  grouse-shooting  in 
the  West  is  the  easiest  there  is.  The  birds  lie 
well  to  the  dogs,  their  flight  is  slow,  and  they 
can  usually  be  marked  down  near  at  hand. 
There  is,  however,  one  thing  which  aflbrds  pro- 
tection to  the  grouse,  and  presents  considerable 
difiieulty  to  the  shooter.  There  arc  commonly 
corn-fields  at  no  great  distance,  and  if  they  fly 
into  the  corn  when  flushed  in  the  stubbles  or  the 
prairie,  it  is  very  difficult  to  kill  them.  It  is, 
on  the  whole,  better  to  It-t  them  go  as  not  at- 
tainable. Men  cannot  shoot  well  in  tall  corn; 
dogs  can  do  but  little  i}i  it,  even  the  best  of 
dogs,   at   that   season,   and    young   ones   are   utterly 


^  FIELD    SHOOTING; 

useless,  as  they  can  neither  see  yoU  nor  you  then\ 
and  no  instructions  can  be  given  to  them.  The 
early  season  is  the  time  for  young  beginners,  aa 
the  broods  are  then  numerous  and  easily  found. 
If  the  shooting  was  not  allowed  before  September, 
it  would  answer  the  purpose  of  teaching  the  no- 
vices quite  as  well ;  for  though  the  birds  would 
be  somewhat  stronger  on  the  wing,  they  would  lie 
just  as  close,  and  would  be  larger.  After  the 
broods  have  been  shot  at  two  or  three  weeks, 
they  are  thinned  out  considerably,  and  have  be- 
come much  wilder.  They  are  then  of  fine  size^ 
the  weather  has  become  cooler,  and  the  birds  can 
be  kept.  At  least  half  of  the  young  grouse  killed 
in  the  month  of  August  become  spoiled  and  are 
never  used.  Some  may  doubt  this,  but  I  state 
what  I  know  to  be  facts.  In  August  the  weather 
is  very  often  close  and  sultry ;  for  though  there 
is  commonly  some  air  on  the  wide  prairies,  the 
breezes  do  not  then  prevail. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  shooting  season  the 
grouse  will  be  found  at  early  morning  in  the  stub- 
bles. They  have  gone  out  of  their  roosting-places 
to  feed  in  the  stubbles  of  the  wheat  and  oat  fields, 
which  have  then  been  pretty  well  overgrown  with 
rag-weed,    and    afford    thick   cover.     Where    flax    is 


PINNATED-GROtrSE    SHOOTING.  (rJ 

cultivated,  you  may  look  for  them  in  the  flax 
stubbles,  as  they  are  some  of  their  most  favorite 
resorts.  Another  good  place  to  beat,  whenever 
you  see  one,  is  a  bean-patch.  The  navy  bean  is 
a  good  deal  cultivated  in  Illinois  and  Iowa,  and 
the  grouse  resort  to  the  patches.  About  nine  or 
ten  o'clock,  when  the  sun  has  got  high  and  the 
morning  hot,  the  grouse  leave  the  stubbles  and 
bean-patches,  and  walk  into  the  long  prairie-grass 
or  into  the  corn.  On  such  daySj  in  clear  weather, 
at  that  season  of  the  year,  it  is  best  to  give  over 
shooting  about  ten  o'clock,  and  lie  by  until  late  in 
the  afternoon,  when  you  may  pursue  your  sporfc 
again  with  prospects  of  success,  and  fill  up  your 
bag.  To  continue  after  the  grouse  in  the  middle 
of  the  day  is  me«ely  to  distress  your  dogs  and  to 
fatigue  yourself  for  nothing.  There  is  no  scent, 
and  the  grouse  will  not  lie  in  the  open  prairie. 
But  on  damp,  cloudy  days  the  case  is  altogether 
different.  The  birds  then  remain  in  the  stubbles 
all  day,  unless  flushed  and  driven  into  the  corn ; 
the  dogs  can  work  and  scent  better ;  and  under 
these  overcast  skies  are  the  best  and  most  glo- 
rious days  of  the  grouse-shooter  in  the  early  part 
of  the  season.  Later  in  the  full  and  at  the  be- 
giiming    of    winter    the    habit     of    the    grouse     is 


64.  FIELD    SnOOTING. 

different,  as  will  be  specially  uoticed  further  on. 
A  cloudy  day,  cool  air,  the  dogs  feeling  and 
working  well,  plenty  of  grouse  in  the  stubbles, 
and  the  sportsman  out  of  the  glaring  sunshine  and 
able  to  shoot  deliberately  and  well,  make  great 
enjoyment  and  a  good  bag.  On  the  clear  days,, 
when  the  grouse  have  left  the  stubbles  for  the 
prairie-grass  and  corn,  instead  of  shooting  all  the 
time  until  you  are  tired,  as  you  will  be  before 
night,  until  you  have  been  seasoned  and  got  into 
hard  condition  of  muscle  and  wind,  lay  off  in  some 
house,  or  your  camp,  or  in  your  wagon  in  the 
shade,  if  you  can  find  it,  until  about  four  or  half- 
past  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  Then  it  will 
be  time  to  begin  to  beat  the  stubbles  again.  The 
grouse  will  have  come,  or  will  be  coming,  on  to 
them  again  from  the  resorts  in  which  they  spent  the 
hot  hours  of  the  day ;  and  you  and  your  dogs,  being 
refreshed  and  rested,  will  be  in  good  fettle  for  the 
sport.  The  sun  will  get  low,  and  finally  go  down 
over  the  distant  swells  of  land  to  the  westward ; 
the  dew  will  begin,  insensibly  to  you,  to  fall ;  the 
dogs  will  find  the  birds  easily,  they  will  lie  well, 
and  you  may  shoot  as  long  as  you  can  see  in  the 
twilight. 

In     some     parts    of    Illinois,     Iowa,     and     other 


PINNATKD-GROUSB   SHOOTING.  65 

Western  States  there  are  very  extensive  ranges 
of  pasture-land,  on  which  great  herds  of  cattle, 
many  from  Texas,  are  fattened.  These  lands  have 
not  been  broken  up  by  the  plough  at  any  time, 
but,  being  regularly  depastured,  have  lost  much 
of  the  prairie  character.  They  remain,  however, 
good  resorts  for  grouse,  and  the  shooting  over 
them  is  some  of  the  best  to  be  had.  The  grouse 
bred  on  them  probably  never  see  a  stubble-field,  at 
least  until  after  late  in  the  fall  of  their  first  year. 
Their  habits  are  the  same  as  those  of  the  birds 
which  are  found  near  the  arable  corn,  wheat, 
and  oat  lands.  In  the  morning  they  will  be 
found  on  the  ridges  and  knolls  where  the  grass 
is  short.  In  the  heat  of  the  day  they  retire  into 
the  long  grass  which  abounds  in  low,  moist 
places.  In  the  evening  they  return  to  the  knolls 
and  ridges  again.  These  pastures  are  sometimes 
of  the  extent  of  two  thousand  acres  or  more, 
and  the  shooting  on  them  is  second  to  none  in 
those  States.  Yet  they  are  comparatively  little 
shot  over,  especially  in  the  early  part  of  the 
season.  As  a  rule,  it  is  believed  the  grouse  are 
more  abundant  where  the  land  is  varied  and 
stubbles,  pieces  of  prairie,  corn-fields,  and  patches 
of  beans  arc  found  in  the  immediate  neighborhood 


66  fttLv  fiHOonyo, 

of  each  other.  For  this  reason  most  of  the 
sportsmen,  especially  those  of  the  towns  near  at 
hand,  or  fron>  the  more  distant  cities,  who  shoot 
mostly  in  the  early  part  of  the  season,  go  to 
them,  and  do  not  attempt  the  wide  pastures.  But 
give  me  the  sport  on  the  latter,  and  let  me  be- 
gin about  the  middle  of  September,  when  most 
of  the  grouse  bred  on  them  are  full-grown, 
strong  birds,  coming  down  with  a  thump  seem- 
ingly hard  enough  to  make  a  hole  in  the  ground 
when  killed  clean  and  well.  The  grouse  in  these 
places  commonly  lie  first-rate  to  the  dog,  and 
get  up  by  twos  and  threes,  so  that  a  good  shot 
has  a  chance  to  bring  to  bag  many  of  the 
covey,  and  thotee  he  cannot  shoot  at  the  first  rise 
may  be  easily  marked  down.  In  1872  Miles 
Johnson  of  New  Jersey  was  shooting  with  me  in 
McLean  County,  Illinois.  We  camped  near  Bell- 
flower,  and  had  a  man  for  camp-keeper  while 
Miles  and  I  shot.  We  were  out  ten  days,  and 
in  that  time  bagged  six  hundred  grouse,  shooting 
only  mornings  and  evenings.  As  I  have  said  be- 
fore, and  wish  to  impress  particularly  upon  my 
readers  for  their  information  and  advantage,  it  is 
of  no  use  to  try  for  grouse  in  the  middle  of  the 
day,  when  the   weather   is  clear,  in  the  early  part 


PINNATED-GROUSK    SHOOTING,  67 

of  the  fall.  The  best  day  Miles  Johnson  and  I 
had  that  time  was  in  one  of  the  great  pastures 
1  have  alluded  to  above.  It  contained  from 
five  to  ten  thousand  acres.  We  went  into  it 
early  in.  the  morning,  and  came  out  about  eleven 
o'clock  in  the  forenoon  with  eighty  full-grown 
grouse.  That  was  a  capital  morning's  sport,  no 
doubt,  but  I  have  often  had  as  good. 

While  we  were  at  the  camp  near  Bellflower  we 
were  visited  by  Johnson's  friend,  Mr,  Eldridge 
of  New  Jersey.  With  him  came  Dr.  Goodbreak  of 
Clinton,  Illinois.  The  doctor  is  an  army  surgeon 
and  an  ardent  and  excellent  sportsman.  They  shot 
with  us  two  days,  using  muzzle-loaders ;  but  when 
Dr.  Goodbreak  had  seen  the  execution  I  did  with 
my  breech-loader,  sometimes  getting  two  or  three 
nice  shots  while  one  was  loading,  and  often  killing 
a  long  way  off,  he  was  satisfied  as  to  which  was 
the  best  style  of  gun,  and  sent  an  order  for  a 
breech-loader  to  cost  three  hundred  and  fifty  dollars. 
After  being  there  ten  days  Miles  Johnson  left  for 
home.  I  remained  at  the  camp,  and  in  a  while 
A.  Leslie  and  H.  Robinson  of  Elkhart  came  up 
and  shot  with  me.  It  was  then  getting  late  in 
the  fall,  and  we  had  excellent  success.  The  grouse 
were  wild  and  very  fast  on    the  wing.     They  wei-e 


C8  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

strong,  and  it  took  good  shooting  and  hard  hit- 
ting to  bring  them  to  the  bag,  I  killed  from  ten 
brace  to  twenty  brace  a  day,  and  averaged  about 
fifteen  brace.  My  companions  together  did  not 
secure  as  many.  In  shooting  grouse  on  the  pas- 
tures, and  indeed  anywhere,  you  should  beware 
of  shooting  too  soon.  M»any  more  birds  are 
missed  at  short  than  at  long  shots,  in  my  opin- 
ion. The  sudden,  loud  whirr  made  by  the  rising 
of  the  grouse  when  it  gets  up  startles  young 
sportsmen,  and  some  nervous,  excitable  old  ones 
too.  The  shot  is  hastily  delivered,  while  the 
bird  is  so  near  that  the  charge  has  not  distance 
enough  to  diverge  and  spread  in,  and  the  game 
is  often  missed.  If  the  shooter  had  waited  for 
steady  sight  of  the  bird  along  the  rib,  which  is 
not  to  be  a  slow,  potterijig  aim,  it  would  have  been 
often  brought  down.  In  McLean  County,  Ford 
County,  and  the  others  of  the  tier  on  that  line, 
there  is  as  good  grouse-shooting  as  any  I  know  of 
anywhere  in  Illinois.  They  are  in  the  section  of 
country  lying  southwest  of  Chicago,  and  a  line 
drawn  from  that  city  to  St.  Louis  in  Missouri 
would  pass  through  them.  As  good  places  as 
any  to  get  off  the  railroad  at  are  Bellfiower  in 
McLean    County,   and    Gibson    in    Ford    County. 


PINNATED-GROUSE    SHOOTING.  69 

Twelve  miles  from  Gibson  is  the  great  farm  of 
Mr.  Michael  Sullivant,  formerly  of  Columbus, 
Ohio.  He  has  a  tract  of  land  containing  forty- 
five  thousand  acres.  It  is  a  splendid  place  to 
shoot,  and  real  sportsmen  are  made  welcome  by 
the  owner.  I  was  there  last  spring  after  brant 
and  ducks,  and  made  heavy  bags.  I  saw  at  that 
time  large  numbers  of  grouse — a  powerful  breed- 
ing-stock. 

In  shooting  over  the  great  pastures  I  have  men- 
tioned particular  care  must  be  taken  not  to  go 
near  the  herds  of  cattle.  They  are  pretty  wild, 
and  the  coming  near  them  of  dogs  makes  them 
excited.  In  the  first  place,  the  farmers  do  not 
like  to  have  dogs  taken  near  their  cattle,  and 
every  good  sportsman  should  carefully  avoid  do- 
ing anything  which  may  annoy  the  owners  of  the 
land  on  which  he  may  be.  I  can  always  got 
along  pleasantly  Avith  the  owners  of  the  land,  and 
so  may  any  one  else  who  Avill  use  them  Avell  and 
refrain  from  damage.  In  the  second  place,  if 
shooting  parties  go  near  the  great  herds  of  cat- 
tl(^  with  their  dogs,  the  ])ulloeks  will  come  for 
Ihc  hitter  at  a  run  in  a  l)ig  drove,  the  fright- 
ened dogs  will  run  to  their  masters,  and  befoi-e 
the    men    cau   get    out    of  th»>    way   of  the    furioin 


70  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

rush  they  may  be  knocked  down,  trampled  over 
by  scores  of  hoofs,  and  very  likely  killed.  Wheu 
shooting  in  these  vast  pastures,  I  take  care  to 
give  the  herds  a  wide  berth,  and  keep  well  away 
from  them.  Even  then  they  will  sometimes  begin 
to  move  towards  the  dogs,  in  which  case  I  pui 
the  setters  or  pointers,  as  the  case  may  be,  into 
the  buggy  as  soon  as  possible,  and  drive  off  out 
of  the  sight  of  the  herd.  In  shooting  grouse  in 
Illinois,  Iowa,  and  the  other  prairie  States,  the 
sportsman  should  take  water  in  his  buggy  or 
wagon  for  himself  and  his  dogs.  The  prairies 
arc  very  spacious,  the  water-courses  wide  apart, 
the  droughts  sometimes  long  and  severe.  If  hd 
thinks  to  find  water  in  natural  places  for  him- 
self and  his  dogs,  which  need  it  oftcner  and 
more  than  he,  they  will  be  very  thirsty  before 
he  reaches  any.  If  he  comes  to  a  house  at  such 
times,  he  will  find  that  water  is  the  most  scarce 
and  precious  thing  about  the  place.  The  well  is 
all  but  dry.  The  farmer's  horses  are  on  short 
allowance.  His  milch  cows  are  stinted,  and  stand 
lowing  round  the  empty  trough  at  the  well  half 
the  night  long.  The  people  sometimes,  in  very 
dry  seasons,  have  to  haul  water  from  a  distance, 
as  their    own    wells   become    dry,    and    their    cattle 


PINNATED-GROUSE    SHOOTING.  71 

and  horses  must  be  provided  for.  In  this  state 
of  affairs  it  cannot  be  expected  that  the  people 
will  furnish  half  a  bucket  of  water  for  a  stranger 
or  two  and  the  dogs.  Therefore  when  you 
start  out  from  house  or  camp,  take  in  your 
buggy  or  wagon  a  five-gallon  jug  of  water  as  a 
thing  of  prime  necessity. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

LATE    PINNATED-aROUSE    SHOOTINGf. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  I  have  described  the 
places  and  times  to  seek  the  pinnated  grouse  in 
the  earlier  part  of  the  shooting  season,  and  pointed 
out  the  methods  of  hunting  for  them  by  means  of 
which  satisfactory  success  is  most  likely  to  be  ob- 
tained. We  now  come  to  the  latter  part  of  the 
season,  the  months  of  October  and  November, 
with  that  of  December ;  for  the  resolute  and  hardy 
sportsmen  who  care  nothing  for  cold  and  wet 
may  sometimes  prefer  a  bag  of  winter  grouse  to 
one  of  duck  or  brant.  In  the  month  of  October 
the  prairies  have  become  brown,  and  later  on  the 
corn  will  have  been  wilted  by  the  early  frosts, 
if  it  has  not  been  already.  Some  of  the  best 
shooting  of  the  year,  to  my  mind  the  very  best, 
is  now  before  the  sportsman ;  but  it  needs  work, 
and  young  beginners  will  not  find  the  grouse  so 
easy  to  kill  as  they  were  in  August  and  Septem- 
ber. In  the  early  part  of  the  season  the  best 
shooting    hours  were    early    and    late    in    the    day. 

72 


LATE    PINNATED-GROUSE    SHOOTING.  73 

Now  it  is  the  reverse ;  the  middle  of  the  day  is 
the  proper  time.  When  I  first  came  to  Illinois, 
the  grouse  in  October  and  later  were  mostly 
found  in  the  prairie-grass.  There  has  now  been  a 
change  in  their  habits,  and  they  seem  to  like  best 
to  lie  in  corn.  I  suppose  the  reason  was  that  as 
prairies  were  much  broken  up,  and  the  quantity 
of  land  in  corn  rapidly  increased,  the  grouse  found 
out  that  the  lying  in  the  corn  was  excellent,  and 
the  habit  was  soon  formed.  In  the  corn  there  is 
a  great  plenty  of  various  kinds  of  food.  The 
ground  is  mellow  and  affords  excellent  dusting 
places.  In  the  West  wheat  is  often  sowed  while 
the  corn  is  still  standing,  being  put  in  with  a 
cultivator-plough.  These  wheat-fields  in  the  corn 
are  favorite  places  with  the  grouse,  and  1  have 
many  a  time  killed  eighteen  or  twenty  in  one 
such  field.  Also,  when  wheat  is  sowed  out  upon 
the  prairie,  grouse  will  go  to  those  fields  at  early 
morning.  When  the  sun  gets  high,  they  will  go 
into  the  prairie-grass,  round  the  edges  of  the 
young  wheat,  and  lie  there  all  the  middle  of  the 
day.  Then  there  is  nice  shooting.  At  four  or 
five  o'clock,  towards  evening,  the  birds  will  go 
out  upon  the  young  wheat-fields  again.  This  is  in 
clear   weather.     On    cloudy   days   the    grouse    stay 


74  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

on  the  wheat,  the  bare  places  of  the  prairie, 
and  on  ploughed  land  all  day,  and  it  is  of  no  use 
to  go  after  them.  You  may  just  as  well  stay  in 
your  tent  or  house  as  go  after  grouse,  for  you 
cannot  get  near  them.  If  there  are  quail  in  the 
neighborhood,  you  may  have  sport  with  them. 
In  only  one  way  can  grouse  be  shot  late  in  the 
fall  in  cloudy,  overcast  weather,  and  it  is  hardly 
worth  while  to  employ  that.  You  may  drive  up 
in  a  buggy,  as  we  do  in  plover-shooting,  and  so 
get  near  enough,  but  it  is  more  trouble  than  the 
game  you  will  kill  is  worth,  and  I  never  do 
it.  I  may  say  here  that  those  who  go  out  shoot- 
ing in  the  prairie  States  need  to  have  a  wagon  or 
buggy  with  them.  It  may  be  done  without,  but 
the  work  is  very  severe.  The  prairies  are  very 
wide,  and  it  is  a  good  way  from  one  favorable 
point  to  another.  When  I  first  went  to  Illinois, 
seventeen  years  ago,  I  used  to  start  out  in  the 
morning,  on  foot,  and  shoot  all  day.  I  used  no 
dog  at  all  then,  and  had  but  a  poor,  light  gun, 
which  did  but  little  execution,  though  I  shot 
middling  well.  When  I  had  got  about  seven 
or  eight  grouse,  I  used  to  hide  them  and  mark 
the  place,  to  be  taken  up  on  my  way  back. 
With   this  gun    I    speak    of    and    common    pow- 


LATE    PINNATED-GROUSE    SHOOTING.  75 

der  I  have  often  shot  away  a  pound  of  the 
latter  to  get  twenty-five  or  thirty  birds.  I  fol- 
lowed, in  those  days,  the  example  of  other 
people,  and  used  shot  several  sizes  larger  than 
was  necessary  or  proper.  At  that  date  we  used 
No.  1  or  No.  2  in  October  and  November,  and  I 
believe  I  was  one  of  the  first  to  discover  that  with 
No.  6,  from  a  good  gun,  with  a  strong  charge  of 
powder,  the  biggest  cock-grouse  that  ever  flew 
could  be  brought  to  the  bag.  At  the  end  of  my 
day's  shooting  at  that  period  I  used  to  have  to 
carry  twenty-five  or  thirty  grouse  as  well  as  the 
gun  for  four  or  five  miles,  sometimes  further. 
This  was  no  small  matter. 

The  October  shooting  of  grouse,  good  as  that 
is,  may  be  excelled,  according  to  my  notions,  by 
that  in  November.  They  generally  lie  in  the 
corn  among  the  tumble-weed,  so  called  from  its 
growing  up  and  rolling  over  so  as  to  form  snug 
cover ;  and  they  are  especially  fond  of  lying  in 
the  sod-corn,  which  is  that  grown  upon  the  land 
the  first  crop  after  the  prairie  is  broken  up.  This 
sod-corn  does  not  grow  up  tall,  as  the  corn  on 
older-tilled  land  does.  In  November  the  blades 
of  the  corn  are  hanging  down,  wilted  by  the 
frost.       The    stalks    are    shrunk.      The    dogs    can 


76  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

work  in  it,  and  you  can  see  to  shoot  in  it.  But 
it  takes  good  shooting  to  make  good  bags.  The 
birds  are  now  at  full  growth  and  strength.  They 
have  in  all  probability  flown  the  gauntlet  of 
many  guns,  and  the  weaker  ones  have  been 
thinned  out  of  the  packs.  But  on  clear  days 
they  lie  well  to  the  dogs,  and,  being  swift  and 
strong  on  the  wing,  when  they  rise  the  sport 
afforded  is  capital.  One  of  the  best  days  I  ever 
had  was  in  November,  near  Farmer  City,  Cham- 
pagne County,  Illinois.  I  was  accompanied  by 
Mr.  Nathan  Doxie,  of  Geneseo,  a  keen  sports- 
man and  good  shot.  At  that  time  he  shot  with 
a  muzzle-loader,  while  I  used  a  breech-loader.  It 
M'as  a  clear,  bright  day,  warm  for  the  time  of 
year.  We  beat  the  sod-corn,  «of  which  there 
was  a  great  deal  in  the  neighborhood,  and,  when 
the  birds  flew  out  into  the  adjoining  prairie,  we 
could  mark  them  down.  Our  bag  was  a  very 
heavy  one.  I  killed  fifty-seven  grouse  and  Mr. 
Doxie  knocked  over  eighteen,  making  seventy- 
five  fine  fat  birds  in  all.  Mr.  Doxie  said  it  was 
the  first  time  he  had  ever  been  beaten  in  the 
field.  There  was  another  person  shooting  near 
us  all  day,  but  he  did  next  to  nothing,  killing 
but   five    grouse,   as    I    remember.      I    have    shot 


LATE    PINNATED-GEOUSE   SHOOTING.  77 

with  many  meu  in  the  month  of  November,  and 
good  shots  too,  but  never  one  that  I  did  not 
beat. 

Three  times  in  the  course  of  my  experience  in 
field-shooting  I  have  killed  ten  grouse  with  two 
barrels.  Once  in  Menard  County,  near  Salt  Creek, 
late  in  November,  I  came  upon  a  plank  fence 
in  a  light  snow-storm.  It  happened  that  there 
was  a  grapevine  growing  thickly  over  part  of 
the  fence,  and,  getting  this  between  me  and  the 
birds,  I  secured  a  pretty  close  shot.  They  were 
scattered  along  the  fence  for  a  distance  of  about 
ten  yards.  With  the  first  barrel  1  killed  nine, 
and  with  the  other  one.  Another  time  I  got  a 
shot  at  a  lot  near  a  fence,  and  killed  ten  with 
two  barrels.  And  once  in  Logan  County  I  got 
within  shot  of  about  twenty  birds  which  were 
in  short  grass,  and  killed  ten  with  both  barrels. 
Such  shots  as  these  arc  very  seldom  to  be  got. 
A  man  may  shoot  half  a  lifetime  and  never 
meet  with  one.  I  have  often,  in  the  early  part 
of  the  season,  killed  a  grouse  with  each  barrel 
out  of  a  pack  which  rose  near  me,  and  then 
slipped  in  another  cartridge,  and  killed  a  third. 
But  this  is  only  to  be  done  when  they  are  lazy 
and  fly  slowly,  and  it  cannot  be  done  then  unless 


78  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

the  shooter  is  very  quick.  Some  men  say  that 
I  am  slow  because  I  will  not  shoot  until  I  have 
sighted  the  birdj  but  I  think  these  sort  of  field- 
shots  and  my  time-matches  at  pigeons  are  suffi- 
cient to  prove  the  contrary.  I  believe  I  am  as 
quick  as  anybody  I  ever  met,  but  I  will  not  fire 
at  random,  and  I  advise  the  reader  never  to  do 
so.  Late  in  the  fall,  when  grouse  get  up  a  little 
wild,  and  fly  swiftly,  it  takes  good  shooting  and 
hard  hitting  to  kill  them.  Sometimes  in  No- 
vember, on  a  clear  day  and  rather  warm,  they 
lie  close,  and  get  up  one  after  the  other  after 
the  first  of  the  pack  have  gone.  There  are 
always  some  lying  scattered  from  the  body  of 
the  pack,  and  as  one  falls  down,  fluttering  its 
wings,  another  will  rise,  sometimes  two.  On  such 
occasions  the  immense  superiority  of  the  breech- 
loader over  the  old  sort  of  gun  becomes  mani- 
fest. I  have  been  at  such  a  time  shooting  with 
a  man  who  used  a  muzzle-loader,  and  have 
actually  stood  in  my  tracks  and  shot  six  grouse 
while  he  was  loading  his  gun.  The  grouse  will 
sometimes  lie  so  close  on  a  clear  day  in  Novem- 
ber that  they  will  remain  hidden  until  you  are 
within  ten  yards  of  them,  and  then  get  up  with 
a    tremendous    whirr   of    wings.      It   is   things   of 


LATE    PINNATED-GROUSE    SHOOTING.  79 

this  sort  that  sportsmen  will  be  glad  to  know 
and  what  1  state  is  drawn  from  experience  solely 
At  the  same  season  of  the  year,  if  the  weather  is 
cloudy  and  damp,  the  birds  are  so  wild  that 
you  cannot  get  near  them ;  and  to  try  is  to  lose 
your  time  and  labor  for  nothing.  The  Indian 
Summer  is  a  good  time  for  shooting  grouse,  and 
very  pleasant  for  the  sportsman.  The  sun  has 
not  the  scorching  power  which  you  feci  in  August 
and  the  early  part  of  September ;  but  it  is  warm, 
the  air  soft  and  still,  and  not  very  hazy — rather 
like  thin,  white  smoke  scattered  from  a  great 
distance.  The  birds  feel  comfortable  in  the 
dead  grass  of  the  prairie  or  among  the  sod-corn. 
They  are  fat  and  lazy,  and  hate  to  get  up  until 
compelled  to  do  so.  Any  clear,  warm  day  late 
in  October  or  in  November  is  just  as  good  as 
an  Indian  Summer  day.  At  this  season  it  is 
useless  to  go  out  before  the  dew  is  off  the  grass; 
whereas  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  shooting  the 
more  you  get  into  the  thick  of  it  at  early  morn- 
ing, the  better  for  you.  The  prairies  are  hand- 
some in  the  fall  of  the  year,  but  not  so  beautiful 
as  in  the  spring,  when  the  grass  is  about  six 
inches  high  and  full  of  wild  flowers.  The  wea- 
ther  is    fine,    the   air   pleasant  and   fragrant.      The 


80  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

cock-grouse  which  have  flowii  out  of  the  bottoms 
at  early  day  arc  hoard  booing  on  the  knolls  and 
ridges.  Hawks  of  various  kinds,  large  and  small, 
are  wheeling  about  overhead,  and  far  away,  high 
up  in  the  distance,  you  may  see  the  great  eagle  cir- 
cling and  sailing  round  about  with  motionless  wings. 
But  of  all  the  sights  I  have  seen  on  the  prairies, 
the  finest,  the  most  striking  and  glorious,  have 
been  on  bright,  frosty  mornings  in  December,  or 
later  on  in  the  winter  sometimes.  On  such  a 
morning,  while  the  frost  still  hangs  on  the  grass, 
the  prairie  looks  like  a  wide  sea  covered  with 
sprays  of  diamonds.  The  most  beautiful  sight  I 
ever  saw  in  my  life  was  on  a  prairie  at  Oliver's 
Grove,  near  Chatsworth,  Iroquois  County,  Illinois. 
We  Avent  in  the  night  to  Chatsworth,  where  there 
was  no  house  then,  intending  to  hunt  turkeys  at 
Oliver's  Grove  at  early  morning.  As  there  was 
no  house  at  Chatsworth  Station,  we  stayed  in  the 
car  till  daylight.  It  was  a  bright,  clear  morning 
in  December,  and  the  sun,  just  risen,  lit  up  all 
the  prairie  with  its  horizontal,  glancing  rays. 
Every  blade  of  grass  on  the  prairie,  every  tree  in 
distant  grove,  glistened  and  spai-kled  like  diamonds 
in  strong  light.  Away  in  the  distance,  five  hun- 
dred yards  out    upon    the    prairie,  there  stood  two 


LATE  .  PINNATED-GROUSE    SHOOTING.  81 

deer,  motionless  and  beautiful,  we  might  almost 
have  thought  lifeless,  they  looked  so  strange  in 
that  wonderful  scene ;  only  we  could  see  the  breath 
streaming  from  their  nostrils  into  the  cold,  frosty 
air.  For  dazzling  radiance  and  strange  beauty,  I 
never  before  saw  such  a  prospect,  and  may  per- 
haps never  see  quite  the  like  again.  After  a  while 
the  deer  walked  leisurely  off  into  the  long  grass 
and  brush  near  the  slough  to  lie  down  in  cover. 
The  game  we  came  for  were  not  to  be  found,  and 
when  we  discovered  this  we  turned  to  leave.  I 
said  to  my  partner,  "We  have  been  disappointed 
in  our  hunt,  but  in  coming  on  it  we  got  a  glori- 
ous and  beautiful  sight — one  not  to  be  forgotten 
as  long  as  we  may  live." 

He  was  a  very  practical  sort  of  man,  and 
replied,  "  1  had  a  good  deal  sooner  have  got  a 
dozen  fat  turkeys." 

On  our  way  back  to  Onarga  across  country 
we  had  to  walk  fourteen  miles.  There  were  many 
buckwheat-stubble  patches  along  the  prairie  in  our 
way,  and  wc  took  them  on  our  road  to  walk  up 
the  grouse.  We  did  not  diverge  to  the  right  or 
left  to  follow  those  which  went  away,  but,  keeping, 
right  ahead,  got  about  twenty  brace  by  the  time 
we    reached    Onarga.       Although    there    were    no 


SZ  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

turkeys  about  Oliver's  Grove  just  then,  it  was  a 
good  place  for  them,  and  from  what  I  saw  there 
must  have  been  lots  of  deer  in  the  neighborhood. 
In  regard  to  grouse-shooting  late  in  the  fall  of 
the  year,  there  is  one  thing  which  should  be  par- 
ticularly observed.  It  is  the  necessity  of  silence. 
There  should  be  very  little  or  no  talk  indulged 
in  between  those  who  are  on  the  beat.  In  the 
earlier  part  of  the  season  it  does  not  much  matter 
what  talk  there  is,  though  I  am  one  of  those  who 
can  stand  a  good  deal  of  silence,  when  hunting, 
at  any  time;  but  late  in  the  fall  talking  makes 
the  grouse  get  up  out  of  distance.  They  will  rise 
at  the  sound  of  the  human  voice  at  that  season  of 
the  year  sooner  than  they  will  at  the  crack  of  the 
gun.  If  two  men  go  along  talking  and  gabbling, 
as  I  have  seen  and  heard  them  do,  the  grouse 
will  nearly  all  rise  out  of  shot,  while  they  would 
have  lain  long  enough  to  have  afforded  many  fair 
shots  if  silence  had  been  preserved.  In  order  not 
to  be  obliged  to  talk  and  call  to  my  dogs  at  such 
times,  I  have  them  l:)rokon  to  hunt  to  the  whistle 
and  the  motion  of  the  hand.  I  have  had  some 
dogs  that  would  hunt  all  day  and  never  make  it 
necessary  to  speak  to  them.  I  have  been  out  with 
men    who    would    talk    in    spite    of    remonstrances 


LATE    PINNATED-GROUSE    SHOOTING.  83 

against  it.  Either  they  did  not  believe  it  would 
scare  up  the  birds,  or  it  was  not  in  their  power 
to  keep  silent  for  half  an  hour  at  a  time.  There 
are,  indeed,  some  people  who  never  seem  to  be 
silent  except  when  asleep,  and  very  likely  not 
then  if  dreams  come  bver  them.  On  these  talk- 
ing occasions  late  in  the  fall  I  have  always  noticed 
that  we  got  very  few  grouse.  Sometimes  when 
I  have  believed  a  pack  of  grouse  to  be  all  up,  I 
have ,  spoken  a  word  or  two  to  one  of  the  dogs, 
when  two  or  three  more  birds  have  risen  right 
away.  Another  thing  to  be  noted  is  this :  when 
you  are  shooting  grouse  late  in  the  fall,  and  the 
dog  brings  in  a  wounded  one  which  flutters  his 
wings,  all  the  others  within  hearing  will  get  up. 
That  sound  sets  them  on  the  wing  as  a  man's 
voice  does,  when  they  lie  close  at  the  loud  report 
of  the  gun.  I  am  not  able  to  explain  why  this  is, 
but  so  it  is.  There  are  many  facts  in  nature  in 
regard  to  the  habits  of  game  which  the  sportsman 
must  accept,  though  he  cannot  arrive  at  the 
reason  of  them. 

At  one  time  in  Illinois  there  was  a  difference 
as  to  the  period  at  which  grouse-shooting  should 
cease.  It  was  left  to  the  counties.  In  Logan 
County   and  some   others   it   was   fixed  for   the  first 


84  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

of  January.  In  other  counties  where  the  grouse 
abounded  to  the  degree  that  the  farmers  thought 
they  consumed  too  much  of  the  crop,  there  was 
no  close-time  in  January,  February,  and  March. 
I  do  not  think  grouse  ever  do  any  appreciable 
damage  to  the  crops.  What  grain  they  eat  would 
be  otherwise  wasted.  They  may,  however,  do 
some  little  harm  by  consuming  seed-wheat  just 
after  the  sowing.  They  bite  off  and  eat  the  blades 
of  young  wheat,  but  that  often  does  more  good 
than  harm,  and  farmers  sometimes  turn  calves 
into  young  wheat-fields  to  feed  it  off.  The  biting 
off  done  by  grouse  in  the  earlier  stages  has  a 
tendency  to  make  it  stool  well,  I  think.  It  is  cer- 
tain that  the  pinnated  grouse  does  the  farmer  good 
by  consuming  grasshoppers  and  other  insects  which 
are  troublesome  and  destructive.  The  law  of  Illi- 
nois in  regard  to  shooting  grouse  is  now  uniform 
all  over  the  State.  The  shooting  ceases  on  the 
fifteenth  day  of  January.  Thus  the  shooting  lasts 
five  months.  I  am  in  favor  of  lopping  off  fifteen 
days  at  the  commencement,  making  it  September 
1  instead  of  August  15,  and  another  fifteen 
days  at  the  end,  making  it  cease  on  the  first 
of  January.  It  would  then  last  four  months.  But 
the    duration    of    the    shooting-time   is   not    of   so 


LATE    PINNATED-GROUSE    SHOOTING.  85 

much  importance  as  many  people  think.  More 
are  taken  by  trapping  late  in  the  season.  To  see 
the  huge  loads  of  grouse  sent  by  railway  to  Chicago 
and  on  for  the  Eastern  market,  one  would  be  at  first 
inclined  to  suppose  that  the  species  must  soon  be 
extirpated ;  but  this  is  an  error.  With  good  breed- 
ing-places and  a  fine  spring  the  number  of  grouse 
produced  is  incalculable.  No  amount  of  fair 
shooting  makes  much  impression  on  game  in  a 
good  game  country.  In  places  where  the  game  is 
sparse,  as  it  appears  to  me  to  be  in  the  Atlantic 
and  Eastern  States,  save  water-fowl  on  the  sea-board, 
many  guns  may  shoot  so  close  that  the  proper 
head  for  a  breeding-stock  will  not  be  left.  It 
is  altogether  different  with  us.  I  went  once  to 
Christian  County,  Illinois,  and  shot  round  about  the 
little  town  of  Assumption  from  February  1  to 
May  20,  the  latter  part  of  the  time  being  on 
snipe.  The  game  of  all  sorts  was  amazingly 
abundant.  There  was  a  great  plenty  of  grouse  and 
quail,  and  the  number  of  ducks  and  geese  was 
almost  past  belief.  It  is  a  varied  sort  of  coun- 
try with  a  good  deal  of  low,  wet  ground,  much 
prairie  and  much  corn-land,  and  a  great  deal  of 
hazel-brush  alon";  the  creeks  and  on  the  cdffcs  of 
the  groves  of  timber.     It  is  a  splendid  country  for 


86  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

game.  I  killed  six  thousand  head  of  all  sorts  while 
there — the  most  part,  of  course,  being  duck,  snipe, 
and  golden  plover.  The  grouse  were  extremely 
abundant  in  the  spring  about  there.  At  early 
morning  the  cock-grouse  could  be  heard  booming  all 
over,  like  the  constant  lowing  of  an  immense  herd 
of  cattle  distributed  in  a  great  pasture.  It  is  hardly 
necessary  to  say  that  the  booming  of  the  grouse  is 
not  like  the  lowing  of  bullocks;  what  1  mean  is 
that  the  booming  on  every  side  pervaded  the  space 
all  around.  Christian  County  is  about  thirty  miles 
southeast  of  Springfield,  and  is  on  the  Illinois  Cen- 
tral Railroad.  At  this  time  I  hold  the  best  place 
for  sport  of  all  sorts  in  the  field  to  be  in  the 
tier  of  counties  which  includes  Ford,  Piatt,  McLean, 
and  Champagne  Counties,  as  well  as  Christian 
County.  Late  in  the  fall,  however,  good  grouse- 
shooting  is  to  be  met  with  all  over  the  State,  un- 
less it  be  down  southwest  in  Egypt,  where  there 
is  but  little  prairie-land.  As  I  have  stated,  great 
numbers  of  grouse  are  bred  in  the  wide  prai- 
ries which  are  still  unbroken,  and  late  in  the 
fall  these  grouse  pack  and  distribute  themselves 
over  the  other  parts  of  the  State  in  vast  numbers, 
feeding  in  corn-fields  and  wheat,  oat,  and  buckwheat 
stubbles.     Whei'e    I    live    the  grouse  are  nearly  as 


LATE    PINNATED-GROUSE    SHOOTING.  87 

abundant  in  the  latter  part  of  the  fall  now  as  they 
were  seventeen  years  ago.  Perhaps  I  might  say 
quite  as  abundant ;  but  there  is  not  anything 
like  as  many  young  grouse  to  be  found  in  that 
neighborhood  in  August  and  September  as  there 
used  to  be.  As  long  as  the  breeding-places  re- 
main it  is  safe  to  conclude  that  there  will  never 
be  a  scarcity  of  grouse  in  Illinois  and  the  other 
prairie  States.  But  though  they  are  nearly  as 
numerous,  they  are  more  difficult  to  kill  than  for- 
merly. The  young  birds  find  the  great  corn-fields 
a  place  of  safe  refuge ;  and  when  the  packs  come  in 
fi"om  the  great  prairies  late  in  the  fall,  they  are 
wild  and  swift.  To  get  good  sport  the  observa- 
tions I  have  made  as  to  weather,  the  best  hours 
of  the  day  at  the  different  seasons,  and  so  on, 
should  be  carefully  heeded.  The  burning  of  pieces 
of  prairie  late  in  the  spring  should  be  avoided,  and 
it  can  easily  be  done.  Let  the  grass  be  burnt  the 
preceding  fall,  or,  which  is  perhaps  still  more  desira- 
ble, early  in  the  spring.  In  the  latter  case  the  grass 
would  have  sprung  up  in  places  high  enough  to 
hold  the  nests  before  the  hen-birds  wanted  to  form 
them,  besides  which  there  are  always  many  places 
untouched  by  the  fire,  and  these  spots  would  be 
chosen  by  the  grouse  to  make  their  nests  in.     By 


88  FIELD    SHOOTINQ. 

leaving  the  grass  unburnt  through  the  winter  the 
birds  would  be  afforded  a  protection  in  that  season 
against  their  enemies — ^the  various  sorts  of  hawks, 
which  are  very  numerous  in  the  prairie  States, 
The  great  source  of  mischief  is  the  burning  of  the 
grass  after  the  nests  are  made.  I  hope  the  farm- 
ers will  follow  my  suggestions  on  this  point.  They 
are  commonly  ready  to  oblige  sportsmen,  and  the 
latter  should  avoid  anything  which  may  cause  an- 
noyance while  in  pursuit  of  game. 


CHAPTER  V. 

QUAIL-SHOOTING    IN    THE    WEST. 

The  beautiful  little  game-bird  of  which  I  am 
now  about  to  write  is  well  known  in  almost  all 
parts  of  the  country.  It  is  a  welcome  visitor 
about  the  homesteads  of  the  farmer  in  the  win- 
ter season,  and  makes  pleasant  the  fields  and 
brakes  in  spring  and  summer.  Quail  are  now 
very  abundant  in  the  Western  States,  much  more 
so,  I  believe,  than  in  those  of  the  Atlantic  sea- 
board, although  they  are  found  in  considerable 
numbers  in  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania, 
Maryland,  and  Virginia.  They  are  much  more  nu- 
merous now  in  Illinois  and  the  other  prairio 
States  than  they  were  formerly.  I  think  the  cul- 
tivation of  the  land  and  the  growth  of  Osage 
orange  hedges  have  brought  about  the  increase. 
The  hedges  furnish  excellent  nesting-places,  and 
are  also  of  great  use  to  the  quail  as  places  of 
refuge  and  security  when  pursued  by  hawks.  The 
latter  are  very  hard  on  quail.  Quail  like  the 
neighborhood   of  cultivated    land,   and    where   they 


90  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

are  not  much  shot  at  they  will  get  so  tame  as 
to  come  right  up  to  the  house  and  barn.  They 
used  to  have  a  very  hard  time  of  it  in  Illinois 
in  severe  winters.  There  was  no  protection  from 
hawks,  by  which  they  were  constantly  harried  and 
destroyed ;  and  there  being  next  to  no  cover,  they 
used  to  be  frozen  to  death  in  bevies.  When  the 
snow  melted,  the  skeletons  and  feathers  would  be 
found  in  groups  of  eight  or  ten.  The  hedges 
now  afford  very  great  protection  in  severe  wea- 
ther, and  preserve  the  lives  of  thousands  which 
would  otherwise  certainly  perish  of  cold  and 
starvation  in  their  absence.  They  break  the  force 
of  the  wind,  and  furnish  snug-lying  places  for  the 
birds  in  hard  weather.  In  soft  snow  quail  com- 
monly manage  to  do  very  well  in  the  open. 
When  pursued  by  hawks  at  such  times,  they  dart 
under  the  snow,  and  lie  safely  hid  from  their 
voracious  enemies.  I  have  seen  them  do  this 
hundreds  of  times,  and  have  rejoiced  at  their 
escape  from  the  talons  of  the  swift  and  perse- 
vering foe.  In  two  or  three  instances  I  have 
walked  up  and  caught  the  quail  which  had  thus 
dashed  into  the  yielding  snow  by  hand.  The 
quail  is  a  very  interesting  bird  about  breeding- 
time,  and   the   soft,  whistling   note   of  the   cock   is 


QUAIL-SHOOTING    IN    THE    WEST.  91 

one  of  the  pleasantest  things  that  strike  the  ear  in 
the  fields  in  spring-time.  They  pair  with  us  about 
the  first  of  May.  I  have  seen  them  together  in 
bevies  as  late  as,  or  later  than,  the  middle  of  April. 
They  build  their  nests  along  the  hedges  and  near 
old  fences  overgrown  with  brush  and  brambles. 
They  resort  but  little  to  the  groves  of  timber 
for  breeding  purposes,  avoiding  them,  I  think,  on 
account  of  egg-sucking  vermin,  such  as  skunks  and 
crows.  Crows  are  bold,  cunning,  and  persistent 
robbers  of  the  nests  of  other  birds.  Minks  catch 
the  old  hens  on  the  nest,  and  raccoons  do  the 
same.  But  the  most  destructive  and  inveterate 
enemy  the  quail  has  is  the  little  hawk,  called 
with  us  the  quail-hawk.  This  little  bird  of  prey 
is  but  a  trifle  larger  than  a  quail  himself,  but  it 
is  very  fierce  and  strong,  swift  on  the  wing,  and 
darts  upon  its  prey  with  electric  speed.  The  nest 
of  the  quail  is  round,  nicely  constructed  of  small 
twigs,  and  lined  with  dead  grass.  I  have  seen 
statements  to  the  effect  that  they  are  covered 
over  on  the  top.  I  have  found  hundreds  of  them, 
and  never  saw  one  that  was.  The  hen  lays  from 
twelve  to  fifteen  eggs,  but  two  hens  sometimes 
lay  in  one  nest,  and  1  have  seen  one  in  which 
there    were    no    less   than    thirty    eggs.       The    hen- 


92  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

quail  does  not  seem  to  be  very  particular  at  time^ 
about  having  a  nest  of  her  own.  I  have  known 
them  to  lay  in  the  nests  of  pinnated  grouse,  and  in 
those  of  barn-door  fowl  which  had  made  their  nests 
in  hedges  or  bunches  in  weeds  in  fence-corners.  It  is 
always  easy  to  learn  when  quail  are  breeding  in  the 
neighborhood,  for  at  such  times  as  the  hen  is  laying 
or  sitting  the  cock  perches  on  a  fence,  a  stump, 
or  an  old  corn.stock,  and  whistles  for  joy.  The 
note  seems  to  express  great  satisfaction  and  de- 
light. The  young  quail  are  no  sooner  hatched 
than  they  are  active  and  ready  to  follow  their 
mother.  The  latter  is  very  watchful,  attentive, 
and  devoted,  ready  to  risk  her  own  life  to  afford 
a  chance  of  safety  to  her  offspring.  If  a  man  or  a 
dog  approaches  the  whereabouts  of  her  young  brood, 
the  mother  simulates  lameness,  and  flutters  about 
as  if  in  a  crippled  condition,  to  lead  the  intruder 
another  way.  The  early  broods  come  off  about 
the  middle  of  June,  when,  the  spring  being  for- 
ward, the  birds  have  paired  early.  I  saw  young 
quail  and  young  grouse  this  year  myself  in  the 
middle  of  June.  It  is  my  impi-cssion  that  when 
the  season  is  early  and  other  circumstances  favor- 
able, the  hen-quail  raises  two  broods.  I  have 
often    seen    early    broods    under    the    care    of    the 


QUAIL-SHOOTING    IN    THE    WEST.  93 

cock,  and  I  think  the  hen  was  then  sitting  again. 
Furthermore,  later  in  the  year  bevies  of  quail 
will  be  found  in  which  there  are  manifestly  birds 
of  two  sizes  besides  the  old  ones.  These  bevies 
must  be  made  up  of  young  quail  of  different  ages. 
I  am  not  certain  as  to  the  hen  bringing  forth  a 
second  brood  while  the  first  is  under  the  care  of 
the  cock,  but  I  state  the  facts  I  have  seen  for 
what  they  are  worth.  There  is  nothing  improba- 
ble, to  my  mind,  in  the  raising  of  two  broods  a 
year.  The  hen-quail  is  very  prolific  of  eggs ; 
food  is  abundant  and  stimulating  at  the  breed- 
ing season ;  the  weather  is  commonly  steadily 
fine  when  the  first  brood  is  brought  off,  and  the 
cock-bird  is  abundantly  able  to  take  care  of  it. 
In  the  State  of  Illinois  quail-shooting  begins  on 
the  first  of  October.  I  think  the  law  ought  to 
be  changed  so  that  it  should  not  commence 
before  the  fifteenth  of  October.  On  the  first  of 
October  some  birds  are  full  grown,  but  it  is 
otherwise  with  the  great  majority  of  the  young 
birds.  Quail  are  a  little  slower  in  growth  than 
pinnated  grouse,  and  it  is  not  before  the  fif- 
teenth of  October  that  most  of  the  bii'ds  are 
large,  strong,  and  swift  of  wing.  In  Ohio,  Indi- 
ana,    Michigan,     Minnesota,    Wisconsin,   and    other 


94  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

wheat-growing  States,  there  Is  very  fine  quail- 
shooting  sooner  in  the  season  than  there  is  in 
Illinois.  With  us  the  best  shooting  cannot  be 
enjoyed  until  late  in  the  fall.  Before  that  time 
the  immense  corn-fields  enable  the  quail  to  get 
the  best  of  the  sportsman.  As  soon  as  a  bevy 
is  flushed  away  it  goes  for  the  corn,  which  is 
thick,  broad  in  the  blade,  and  very  high.  1 
stand  six  feet  in  height,  and  I  have  seen  stalks 
of  Illinois  corn  so  tall  that  I  could  but  just  reach 
the  lowest  ears  upon  them.  There  is  no  making 
headway  and  filling  the  bag  in  such  fields  as 
these ;  and  the  moment  the  quail  are  flushed  on 
the  wheat  and  oat  stubbles  away  they  go  for 
the  corn.  You  may  give  them  up  as  soon  as 
they  reach  this  tall,  thick,  and  dense  cover.  If 
you  make  an  attempt  at  them  in  it,  they  will 
not  rise  above  the  tops,  so  that  you  cannot  see 
to  shoot ;  besides  which,  the  thickest  spread  of 
the  broad  blades  is  just  about  as  high  as  your 
head,  and  above  it.  It  is  not  until  good,  sharp 
frosts  have  well  wilted  the  blades  and  caused  them 
to  hang  down  lifeless  along  the  stalk  that  there 
is  a  good  chance  at  the  quail  in  such  places. 
As  long  as  the  leaves  wave  crisp  in  the  autumn 
wind    the  quail    may  defy  the  shooter.      Therefore 


QUAIL-SHOOTING    IN    TUK    WEST.  95 

the  best  of  the  shooting  is  in  November  and  De- 
cember. You  must  be  up  by  dawn  of  day,  and 
scatter  the  hoar  frost  or  the  sparkling  dew  as  you 
go  to  your  chosen  grounds.  In  a  country  where 
there  are  many  stubbles,  many  corn-fields,  and 
much  hazel-brush  the  quail  delight,  and  there, 
on  such  a  morning,  as  soon  as  the  sun  has  risen 
over  the  swells  of  the  prairies  to  the  eastward, 
they  will  be  found  in  abundance.  They  roost 
along  the  margins  of  sloughs  in  long  grass,  in 
stubbles  where  the  rag-weed  is  thick  and  strong,  in 
patches  of  brush,  and  along  hedge-rows.  Where 
there  are  corn-fields  along  the  margin  of  sloughs,  the 
quail  are  fond  of  roosting  in  the  edges  of  the 
corn.  As  soon  as  the  sun  touches  the  frost  on  the 
corn  and  grass  and  the  weeds  of*  the  overgrown 
stubbles,  the  quail  begin  to  run  from  their  roost- 
ing-places.  At  the  early  hours,  when  they  are 
first  on  the  move,  is  the  best  time  for  the  dogs 
to  find  them,  as  the  scent  is  then  very  good.  When 
they  are  really  plentiful,  they  may  be  easily  found 
in  any  weather,  but  most  easily  on  a  fine,  clear  day, 
early  in  the  crisp,  cool  air  of  the  bright,  frosty 
morning.  When  a  bevy  is  flushed  in  such  weather 
as  tills,  they  scatter  at  once,  and  when  they  pitch 
down   they  lie  there  hid   under  the  first  bunch  of 


96  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

grass  or  weed  or  any  other  bit  of  cover  they  can 
find  for  the  purpose  of  concealment.  With  good 
dogs  you  can  then  take  them  one  after  the  other. 
When  a  bevy  has  been  flushed,  and  the  birds  have 
scattered  about  and  pitched  down  in  this  way,  I 
have  often  killed  from  six  to  ten  before  picking 
any  up.  I  was  once  shooting  in  Mason  County, 
Illinois,  late  in  the  fall,  and  flushed  a  very  large 
bevy  of  quail  from  a  wheat-stubble.  They  scat- 
tered and  flew  over  into  a  piece  of  prairie-grass,, 
where  they  pitched  down.  I  knew  they  would  lie 
very  close,  and  so  they  did.  They  got  up  one 
and  two  at  a  time,  and  out  of  the  bevy  I  accounted 
there  and  then  for  seven  brace  and  a  half.  Quail 
pack  late  in  the  fall,  and  in  Mason  County  at  that 
time  there  wer^  bevies  of  thirty  or  forty  in  num- 
ber. In  damp  or  wet  weather  quail  act  in  a  dif- 
ferent manner  when  flushed  and  scattered.  At 
such  times,  instead  of  lying  where  they  pitch 
down,  they  run  a  long  distance.  And  then  when 
the  dog  has  winded  them,  and  is  about  to  point, 
or  has  pointed,  they  start  and  run  on  again.  Under 
such  circumstances  it  is  difficult  to  make  a  good 
bag.  It  was  mainly  in  such  weather  that  the  net- 
ting of  quail  was  carried  on.  This  bad  practice  is 
now   unlawful.     I   saw  great   numbers    caught  with 


QUAIL-SHOOTING    IN    THE    WEST.  97 

nets  in  Missouri.  Whole  bevies  were  taken  at 
one  fell  swoop,  the  quail  being  driven  into  the 
wings  of  the  net  by  men  on  horseback.  It  is  a 
very  good  thing  that  this  destructive  practice  has 
been  prohibited  by  law,  and  is  now  wholly  done 
away  with.  As  long  as  it  was  lawful  the  farmers 
on  whose  land  it  was  practised  did  not  like  to 
interfere ;  but  now  they  do  interfere,  and  netting 
in  Illinois  and  Missouri  has  practically  ceased  and 
come  to  an  end.  When  it  was  lawful,  two  nettei's 
were  harder  on  the  quail  than  about  two  hundred 
shooters,  although  at  that  time  some  of  the  latter 
Avho  were  apt  to  miss  a  bird  on  the  wing  would 
fire  at  bevies  of  quail  on  the  ground.  This  is 
not  a  practice  to  be  followed.  I  have  taken  two 
or  three  raking  shots  at  grouse  sitting  on  fences 
in  my  time,  but  the  opportunity  was  so  rare 
and  the  temptation  so  great  that  it  was  just  then 
irresistible. 

The  best  quail-shooting  I  ever  had  was  in  the 
Sangamon  River  country,  about  where  Salt  Creek 
falls  into  it.  There  is  upon  Salt  Creek  and  the 
Sangamon  a  great  deal  of  bottom-land  with  much 
hazel-brush  and  considerable  timber.  There  are 
also  plenty  of  corn-fields.  The  shooting  there  is 
much  varied.     There  are  vast  numbers  of  quail,  a 


98  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

great  many  grouse,  and  at  the  right  times  snipe 
and  duck  are  to  be  Ibund  in  amazing  numbers. 
When  I  used  to  go  out  in  that  neighborhood  for 
the  purpose  of  shooting,  quail  especially,  I  used  to 
get  from  twenty  to  thirty  brace  a  day  for  many 
days  in  succession.  Varied  shooting,  however,  is 
more  satisfactory  sport  to  me,  and  1  used  to  make 
very  heavy  bags  of  grouse,  quail,  and  some  duck 
— mallards  and  teal.  It  is  a  great  place  for  mal- 
lards; some  of  them  stop  all  summer  and  breed 
there,  and  some  stop  all  winter,  for  there  are 
parts  of  the  river  which  hardly  ever  freeze  over. 
Quail  are  more  abundant  about  there  now  than 
they  were  at  the  time  I  speak  of,  and  there  are 
quite  as  many  grouse;  but  they  are  both  more 
difficult  to  kill  than  they  used  to  be  in  the  earlier 
part  of  the  season.  The  corn-fields  have  increased 
so  that  they  are  now  many  and  vast,  and  this 
serves  as  a  defence  for  the  birds.  There  are  more 
quail  in  that  country  this  year  than  there  ever 
were  before.  There  are  now,  however,  plenty  of 
quail  all  over  Illinois,  Iowa,  and  Missouri.  In  the 
southwest  of  Illinois,  the  region  called  Egypt, 
there  is  a  great  deal  of  brush  interspersed  with 
prairie,  farm-lands,  and  groves  of  timber,  and  there 
quail    may   be    found    in    great    abundance.      But 


QUAIL-SHOOTING    IN    THE    WEST.  99 

grouse  are  not  as  plentiful  there  as  in  the  interior 
counties  of  the  State. 

Some  people  think  the  quail  a  hard  bird  to 
shoot,  but  it  is  not.  It  flies  swift  but  straight, 
and  is  commonly  missed  by  reason  of  the  shooter 
being  too  much  in  a  hurry  where  it  is  not  brought 
to  bag.  Because  the  flight  of  the  bird  when 
flushed  is  rapid,  men  think  it  necessary  to  shoot 
very  quick,  and  pull  the  trigger  without  sighting 
the  mark  truly.  This  is  an  error  to  which  three  out 
of  four  misses  are  owing.  Let  the  bird  be  well 
sighted  along  the  rib  before  the  trigger  is  pulled, 
and,  no  matter  how  fast  he  goes,  the  shot  will 
overtake  and  stop  him.  Quail  will  not  carry  ofT 
a  great  many  shot.  There  is  no  necessity  ibr 
hurry  in  shooting,  and  this  will  be  made  manifest 
to  sportsmen  if  they  will  sometimes  step  the 
ground  from  where  they  fired  to  the  dead  bird. 
They  will  find  that  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  it 
was  not  as  far  off"  as  they  believed  it  to  be  when 
they  fired  at  it.  Many  of  those  thought  to  be 
as  much  as  forty  yards  off"  when  the  trigger  was 
pulled  will  be  found  dead  at  thirty  yards,  and 
some  at  five-and-twenty.  This  shows  that  there 
is  commonly  plenty  of  time  to  get  well  on  the 
bird  before  shooting,  instead  of  blazing  away  on  tho 


100  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

instant  at  random.  I  have  shot  thousands  on  thou- 
sands myself,  and  know  that  my  misses  were  com- 
monly caused  by  being  in  too  much  of  a  hurry  to 
fire.  When  I  have  missed  with  the  first  and  killed 
with  the  second  barrel,  I  have  considered  it  a 
plain  proof  that  I  ought  to  have  let  another 
second  elapse  before  firing  the  first  barrel;  for 
if  a  bird,  flying  in  the  open  straight  away,  or 
quartering,  is  well  sighted  with  a  good  gun  pro- 
perly charged,  it  is  next  kin  to  a  miracle  for  it 
to  escape.  After  good  experience  I  resolved  to 
take  more  time  in  quail-shooting,  and  I  *  have 
found  the  practice  answer.  I  can  now  kill  nearly 
every  quail  I  shoot  at  within  fair  distance.  Quail 
generally  lie  close  to  the  dog  when  they  will  lie 
at  all  well,  and  do  not  get  up  until  the  shooter  is 
near  them.  The  experience  of  sportsmen  will 
confirm  this,  and  it  will  show  that  there  is  no 
reason  whatever  for  shooting  in  a  hurried  man- 
ner, but  very  strong  reasons  for  guarding  against 
it.  By  taking  time  you  not  only  get  the  bird 
well  sighted,  but  the  extra  distance  it  has  gone 
gives  the  shot  so  much  more  chance  to  spread, 
and  thus  increases  the  chance  to  kill. 

A  few   years    ago,  after  the  close   of  the  war,  1 
went,    in    the    middle    of   January,   on   a   shooting 


QUAIL-SHOOTING    IN    THE    WEST.  101 

excursion  to  Lynn  County,  Missouri.  I  hunted  on 
Shoal  Creek,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Cameron,  a 
place  about  fifty  miles  east  of  St.  Joseph,  on 
the  Missouri  River.  It  was  a  good  place  for 
game.  There  were  quail,  pinnated  grouse,  some 
ruffed  grouse,  turkeys  and  deer  in  large  numbers. 
I  killed  many  turkeys  and  a  few  deer ;  but  of 
these  I  shall  give  some  account  further  on,  under 
the  proper  heads.  The  country  is  wild  and 
broken,  with  much  brush  and  timber,  and  abounds 
in  gullies,  deep  hollows,  and  steep  ravines.  The 
bevies,  when  flushed,  would  frequently  fly  for 
the  thickets  and  gullies,  and  then  it  was  difficult 
shooting.  Sometimes,  however,  they  would  scat- 
ter and  drop  in  the  grass  of  the  pieces  of  prairie, 
and  then  I  had  beautiful  sport,  killing  from 
twenty  to  thirty  brace  a  day.  The  pinnated 
grouse  were  not  numerous  about  there,  but  the 
ruffed  grouse  were  in  fair  numbers  for  them. 
Iowa  is  a  good  State  for  quail.  There  are  more 
groves  of  timber  and  more  brush  there  than  in 
Illinois,  but  the  latter  is  much  the  best  State  for 
pinnated  grouse,  and  the  growing  up  of  the  Osage 
orange  hedges  has  supplied  in  many  parts  the 
want  of  brush,  and  thus  increased  the  head  of 
quail.     When   flushed   in   the  open,  the  birds  very 


102  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

often  go  for  the  hedges,  and  then  a  great  deal 
may  be  done  with  a  gun  on  each  side  of  the 
hedge  while  the  dogs  are  beating  it.  One  man 
cannot  do  much  with  the  quail  when  they  take 
this  refuge.  Some  of  these  hedges  are  eight  or 
ten  feet  high;  others  have  been  so  trimmed  as 
to  be  four  feet  through  and  thick  of  growth. 
With  a  man  on  each  side  of  the  hedge  there  is 
very  pretty  shooting.  If  you  are  out  without  a 
companion,  and  the  quail  take  to  the  hedges,  you 
may  trust  one  side  to  an  old,  well-trained  dog, 
and  take  the  other  yourself.  Always  send  the 
dog  to  the  lee  side.  If  you  have  a  companion, 
and  he  leaves  to  you  the  choice  of  sides,  as  most 
men  will  do,  not  knowing  that  it  makes  any  differ- 
ence, always  take  the  windward  side.  By  so  doing 
you  will  get  three  or  four  shots  to  your  com 
panion's  one  when  the  wind  is  blowing  athwart,  ct 
nearly  athwart,  the  hedge.  The  reason  is  very 
simple,  though  seldom  thought  of.  The  dog  to  lee- 
ward winds  the  quail  in  the  hedge,  and,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  course,  puts  them  out  on  the  windward  side ; 
while  the  scent  is  blown  away  from  the  dog  on 
your  side.  I  have  been  out  with  men  who  did 
not  understand  this,  and  they  would  say,  "  Cap- 
tain, what   the  d — 1   makes   almost  all  the  quail  fly 


QUAIL-SHOOTING    IN    THE    WEST.  103 

out  on  your  side  of  the  hedge?"  Half  the  suc- 
cess of  sporting,  outside  of  being  a  good  shot, 
depends  upon  the  knowledge  of  such  things  as 
this.  There  is  another  matter  to  be  mentioned 
here.  The  best  dogs  in  the  world  are  sometimes 
unable  to  find  and  put  up  all  the  birds  in  a 
bevy  of  quail.  I  have  often  been  out  with  men 
who  had  first-rate  dogs,  and  have,  to  their 
amazement,  given  them  absolute  and  irrefragable 
proof  of  this  fact.  They  have  been  not  a  little 
annoyed  at  first  when  they  saw  me  put  up  quail 
which  their  dogs  had  been  unable  to  find  after 
the  bevy  was  gone.  But  it  was  no  fault  of  the 
dogs,  nor  were  they  unable  to  detect  the  quail 
because  the  latter  withheld  their  scent,  as  some 
have  argued  they  have  power  to  do.  I  do  not 
believe  they  possess  any  such  power.  It  is  not 
a  question  of  no  scent,  but  of  too  much.  The  bevy 
have  been  lying  there  and  rumiing  all  over  the 
ground,  so  that  it  is  covered  and  tainted  with 
scent  to  such  a  degree  that  the  noses  of  the  dogs 
become  full  of  it,  and  that  is  why  they  cannot 
find  and  put  up  one  or  two  birds  which  lie  close 
in  their  hiding-places  and  decline  to  move.  I 
will  now  relate  a  notable  instance  of  this  sort  of 
thing  which  occurred  last  fall.     It  was  near  Selma, 


104  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

Alabama,  in  the  neighborhood  of  which  city  1  was 
shooting  with  a  gentleman  named  Ellis  and  Mr. 
Jacobs,  a  gunsmith.  On  the  day  in  question  Mr, 
Jacobs  did  not  take  the  field,  and  Mr.  Ellis  and 
I  were  alone.  He  had  a  brace  of  splendid  set- 
ters, a  black  and  a  red.  For  one  of  the  dogs 
he  had  paid  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  and 
he  would  not  have  taken  five  hundred  for  the 
brace.  They  had  fine  noses  and  were  splendid 
workers.  In  the  course  of  our  sport  we  found  a 
bevy  of  quail  in  old  grass  at  the  edge  of  a  bit 
of  prairie  which  had  once  been  ploughed  np,  and 
was  now  an  old  garden  all  overgrown  with  weeds 
and  briers.  The  quail  ran  in  the  grass,  but 
finally  got  up  together.  Mr.  Ellis  killed  two  and 
I  killed  two.  A  few  went  away,  and  were  marked 
down  at  some  distance.  Mr.  Ellis  believed  they 
were  all  gone.  The  dogs  beat  the  ground  tho- 
roughly, and  could  find  no  more.  I  said  that  1 
believed  there  might  be  more,  upon  which  Mr. 
Ellis  made  his  dogs  try  it  again,  and  then  con- 
fidently pronounced  that  there  could  not  be  an- 
other quail  there.  I  said,  "  I  still  think  there  may 
be  quail  here  and  I  will  show  you  how  to  make 
them  rise  if  there  are  any."  With  that  I  imitated 
the  kind  of  whistling  noise  made  by  the  old  quail 


QUAIL-SHOOTING    IN    THE    WEST.  105 

when  she  has  young  ones.  Up  got  one,  and  Mr.  Ellis 
killed  it ;  away  went  another,  and  I  stopped  it.  Mr. 
Ellis  was  greatly  astonished,  and  did  not  know  what 
to  make  of  it.  I  explained  the  matter,  telling  him 
that  if  the  dogs  had  been  taken  off  to  another  part 
of  the  field,  and  kept  there  long  enough  for  the 
old  scent  to  have  exhaled  from  the  ground  and 
passed  away,  they  would  have  found  the  two 
quail  readily  enough  when  brought  back  to  the 
place.  The  ground  was  so  saturated  with  scent 
that  the  dogs  could  no't  distinguish  that  of  the 
remaining  birds,  and  could  not  put  them  up  with- 
out stumbling  right  on  them.  I  have  often  seen 
the  same  thing  happen  with  a  close-lying  lot  of 
pinnated  grouse  in  long  prairie-grass.  1  do  not 
believe  in  the  theory  advanced  by  some  that  quail 
or  any  other  game-bird  can  withhold  their  scent  so 
as  to  prevent  a  good  dog  from  winding  them  when 
he  comes  near.  I  had  fair  sport  in  the  South  last 
fall,  principally  at  quail,  round  the  cotton-fields, 
but  there  seemed  to  be  a  scarcity  of  game.  There 
was  not  one  quail  to  a  hundred  which  would  have 
been  found  in  good  situations  in  Illinois.  I  was  in 
Alabama,  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  and  Tennessee, 
and  nowhere  was  game  in  what  we  should  call  fair 
(ilcnty    in   the   West.      At    Paris,   Tennessee,   they 


106  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

held  the  erroneous  opinion  that  a  pigeon-shooter 
could  not  be  a  good  field  shot.  They  said  they 
had  a  man  who  could  beat  any  pigeon-shooter  in 
the  field.  I  told  them  to  send  for  him,  as  I  was 
willing  to  shoot  against  him  for  a  hundred  dollars, 
fifty  shots  each,  to  be  taken  alternately.  They  would 
not  make  the  match.  In  Mississippi  I  shot  with 
Mr.  Galbraith.  The  birds  were  scarce  and  wild. 
There  were  more  about  Selma  than  any  other  place 
I  was  at.  So  far  as  my  experience  went,  the  shoot- 
ing was  nothing  to  that  which  niay  be  had  in  Ohio, 
Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  Iowa,  Wisconsin,  Min- 
nesota, Kansas,  Missouri,  Nebraska,  etc.  There 
were  as  fine  a  lot  of  gentlemen  in  the  South  as  I 
have  ever  met,  and  they  were  good  shots  and  keen 
sportsmen. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


RUFFED-GROUSE    SHOOTIKG. 


Hitherto  we  have  been  concerned  with  the  sport 
to  be  had  in  pursuit  of  game-birds,  pinnated  grouse, 
and  quail,  which  are  found  in  the  neighborhood  of 
cultivated  farms,  and,  as  regards  the  latter,  often 
in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  habitations  of  man. 
We  now  come  to  one  whose  favorite  haunts  are 
wild,  solitary  places  not  frequently  intruded  upon, 
and  almost  always  lying  remote  from  thickly- 
settled  sections  of  country.  The  ruffed  grouse  is  a 
very  handsome  bird,  and  in  situations  where  it  is 
seldom  shot  at  it  seems  to  take  a  sort  of  pride  in 
exhibiting  its.  beauty  in  a  stately  and  graceful 
manner.  It  weighs  about  a  pound  and  a  half;  is 
plump  on  the  breast;  and  its  flesh,  white,  juicy, 
and  delicate,  is  delicious  eating.  It  is  usually  half 
spoiled  in  city  restaurants  by  splitting  and  broiling. 
It  ought  to  be  roasted  and  served  with  bread-sauce. 
The  ruffed  grouse  is  extensively  distributed  from 
east   to   west,  but   is   nowhere  found   in  any  great 

107 


108  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

abundance.  Its  habits  are  not  nearly  so  gregarious  as 
those  of  the  pinnated  grouse,  and  no  such  multitudes 
are  to  be  found  anywhere  of  ruffed  grouse  as  may 
often  be  met  with  of  the  former  species  in  the 
great  prairie  States.  The  ruffed  grouse  is  but 
seldom  found  in  coveys,  though  sometimes  a  brood 
of  full-grown  birds  are  found  still  together  in 
some  lonely  nook  among  the  woodlands,  or  in  a 
solitary,  sheltered  spot  in  severe  winter  weather. 
It  is  generally  found  singly  or  in  pairs,  and 
loves  sylvan  solitudes,  steep  hillsides,  wooded 
dells,  and  the  neighborhood  of  gullies  and  ravines. 
The  rougher  and  more  broken  the  country,  the 
better  the  ruffed  grouse  like  it,  provided  it  is 
well  timbered  with  the  trees  and  well  covered 
with  the  shrubs  upon  whose  buds  the  birds 
mainly  feed.  It  is,  however,  often  met  with  in 
the  deep,  heavily-timbered  bottom-lands  of  the 
northwest  part  of  Michigan.  The  buds  of  birch, 
beech,  and  laurel  (so-called)  are  the  favorite  food 
of  this  bird  in  winter  and  spring.  In  summer 
it  no  doubt  feeds  largely  on  berries  and  insects. 
I  do  not  think  it  ever  visits  the  stubble-lands 
to  pick  up  wheat  and  buckwheat,  though  there 
are  some  such  bits  of  stubble  in  the  very  heart 
of  the   woods   in   which   it  is  constantly  but  thinly 


RUFFED-GROUSE    SHOOTING.  108 

found.  In  the  New  England  States  it  is  met 
with,  and  is  sparsely  distributed  in  New  York 
and  New  Jersey.  In  some  of  the  wild,  half- 
mountainous  tracts  of  New  Jersey,  where  the 
undergrowth  consists  largely  of  laurel,  it  is,  more 
abundant.  It  is  also  frequently  met  with  in 
West  Virginia.  In  Kentucky,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illi- 
nois, Missouri,  and  Iowa  the  ruffed  grouse  is 
also  found ;  but  so  far  as  my  knowledge  and 
experience  go,  it  is  most  abundant  of  .all  in 
some  parts  of  Wisconsin  and  the  northwest  part 
of  the  lower  peninsula  of  Michigan.  It  is  said 
tTiat  the  buds  of  the  laurel  and  some  of  the 
berries  upon  which  the  ruffed  grouse  feed  have 
a  tendency  to  make  the  flesh  poisonous.  I  can- 
not confirm  the  theory,  though  I  have  eaten  many 
a  grouse  whose  crop  was  full  of  the  buds  in 
question  when  drawn.  In  general  appearance  it 
has  some  resemblance  to  the  pinnated  grouse,  but 
is  a  smaller  bird,  with  a  long,  square  tail,  very 
full  feathered,  which  it  carries  over  the  fallen 
leaves  and  mossy  sward  among  the  timber  with 
a  conscious  pride  and  a  swelling,  strutting  gait 
in  places  where  it  is  little  disturbed.  It  is,  in 
fact,  a  beautiful  ornament  to  the  romantic  soli- 
tudes  and   deep,   heavy    woods   which    it    inhabits. 


110  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

In  places  where  it  is  seldom  shot  at,  the  bird, 
at  the  approach  of  man,  instead  of  taking  wing, 
often  spreads  its  tail,  ruffles  up  the  feathers  of 
the  neck,  and  struts  off  with  the  proud  air  of 
the  true  cock  of  the  woods.  In  the  spring  of  the 
year,  at  the  approach  of  breeding-time,  and  at 
other  seasons  just  before  stormy,  rainy  weather, 
the  male  bird  drums  at  dawn  of  day.  It  may 
sometimes,  too,  be  heard  performing  this  singu- 
lar feat  in  the  night,  and  on  a  sultry  afternoon 
when  a  thunder-storm  is  brewing.  The  drumming 
is  usually  made  on  an  old  log,  and  each  male 
bird  seems  to  have  his  favorite  place  for  the 
joyous  performance.  He  begins  by  lowering  his 
wings  as  he  walks  to  and  fro  on  the  log,  then 
making  some  hard  strokes  at  intervals,  and  finally 
so  increasing  the  swiftness  of  the  movement  that 
the  sound  is  like  the  rapid  roll  of  a  snare-drum 
muffled  by  a  position  in  the  depths  of  the  woods. 
The  sound  is  very  deceptive  as  to  the  place  of 
the  bird.  He  may  be  comparatively  near,  while 
his  drumming  really  seems  like  muttered  thunder 
a  long  way  off.  On  the  other  hand,  the  hearer 
sometimes  supposes  the  hidden  drummer  to  be 
close  at  hand  when  he  is  at  a  very  considerable 
distance.      In    wild    situations,    near   lonely    preci- 


RUFFED-GROUSE    SHOOTING.  Ill 

pices,  the  beating  of  the  ruffed  grouse  upon  his 
log  may  remind  one  of  Macdonald's  phantom 
drummer,  whose  story  was  beautifully  and  forcibly 
told  in  verse  by  General  William  H.  Lytle, 
who  fell,  covered  with  glory  and  renown,  at 
Chickamauga : 

"  And  still  belated  peasants  tell 

How,  near  that  Alpine  height, 
They  hear  a  drum  roll  loud  and  clear 

On  many  a  storm-vexed  night. 
This  story  of  the  olden  time 

With  sad  eyes  they  repeat, 
And  whisper  by  whose  ghostly  hands 

The  spirit-drum  is  beat." 

I  have  often  seen  the  tops  of  old  logs  divested 
of  their  mosses  and  worn  smooth  by  the  constant 
drumming  of  the  cock  ruffed  grouse,  and  have 
stood  within  thirty  yards  and  seen  the  bird  per- 
form the  operation.  Just  before  rain  the  grouse 
drum  frequently,  and  the  repetition  of  this  sound 
from  various  quarters  in  the  daytime  is  a  pretty 
certain  indication  of  the  near  approach  of  wet 
weather.  The  female  builds  in  the  Western 
States  about  the  first  of  May.  The  nest  is 
formed   of    leaves  and  dead   grass,  and  is  built   in 


112  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

a  secluded  place  at  the  root  of  a  tree  or  stump, 
or  by  the  side  of  an  old,  mossy  log  over- 
grown with  blackberry  briers.  The  hen  lays 
frctoi  twelve  to  fifteen  eggs,  and  when  first 
hatched  the  chicks  are  the  most  beautiful,  cunning, 
and  alert  little  things  that  can  be  seen  any- 
where. TKe  editor  of  this  work  had  an  excellent 
opportunity  for  observing  them  and  their  watchful, 
devoted  mothers  on  one  well-remembered  occa- 
sion. Nearly  thirty  years  ago  he  was  upon  an 
exploring  expedition  in  the  northwest  part  of  the 
lower  peninsula  of  Michigan.  The  country  was 
then  very  thinly  settled  about  there.  A  few 
men  had  with  much  labor  hewn  out  little  clear- 
ings in  the  heavy-timbered  woods  in  places  on  the 
banks  of  rivers,  but  the  great  industry  was  log- 
ging in  the  pine-woods,  splitting  shingles,  and 
fishing  during  the  spring  freshets,  when  the  low- 
lands and  wet  prairies  were  literally  covered 
with  pickerel.  The  ridges  were  thickly  timbered 
with  beech  and  maple  where  not  covered  with 
pine,  and  the  bottom-lands  were  clothed  with 
gigantic  oak,  black-walnut,  basswood,  hickory, 
and  butternut  trees.  It  was  a  country  watered 
by  a  network  of  rivers,  which  united  to  form 
the  Saginaw,  soon  after  which  junction  the  latter  fell 


RtTFFBD-GROUSK   SHOOTING.  113 

into  the  bay  of  the  same  name  in  Lake  Huron. 
We  started  in  canoes,  well  provided  with  provi- 
sions, arms,  and  ammunition,  and  paddled  for  the 
mouth  of  the  Cass.  It  was  in  June,  and  the 
young  flappers  (wild  ducks)  were  swarming  in 
the  rivers.  Above  the  bend  of  the  Cass  we 
made  our  first  camp.  The  region  was  then  very 
wild.  Deer  abounded,  and  the  wolves  howled 
hideously  around  the  camp  at  night.  We  treed 
two  or  three  wild- cats,  and  shot  them  with 
rifles.  We  had  no  shot-guns.  A  bai^d  of  Chip- 
pewa Indians  were  encamped  near  us.  The  men 
of  the  tribe  lived  by  hunting  and  fishing  with  the 
spear.  The  women  and  girls  made  money  by 
gathering  cranberries  in  the  marshes  when  the 
wild  fruit  was  ripe.  These  Indians  assured  us 
that  a  few  elk  were  still  left  in  the  great  woods 
which  here  surrounded  our  party,  and  they  said 
that  in  the  fall  there  were  lots  of  bears.  It  was 
just  the  hatching-time  of  the  ruffed  grouse, 
which  we  found  numerous  in  the  bottoms  among 
the  heavy  timber.  They  had  seldom  been  mo- 
lested, and  were  not  very  shy,  but  rather  bold 
and  feai'less.  One  day  we  cut  down  a  butternut- 
tree,  wanting  it  to  make  a  temporary  bridge 
across  a  creek,  and,  having   lopped  the   top,  went 


114  FIELD    SHOOTING.  • 

to  our  tent  to  dinner.  On  our  return  we  came 
upon  a  hen-grouse  with  a  brood  of  young  newly 
hatched.  Uttering  a  cry,  she  scuffled  and  fluttered 
atout  at  our  feet  with  the  most  motherly  cour- 
age and  devotion,  behaving  as  if  she  were  wounded, 
in  order  to  draw  us  off".  But  we  had  seen  her 
young  ones  run  under  the  leaves  of  the  fallen 
butternut-tree,  and  caught  two  or  three  of  them. 
They  were  beautiful  downy  little  things,  and 
watched  us  intently  with  their  bright  eyes.  The 
mother,  stimulated  by  alarm,  remained  near  us 
while  we  held  her  young  after  the  others  had 
scuffled  off",  and  we  had  the  pleasure  of  placing 
the  little  things  on  the  ground  again,  and  seeing 
them  hide  in  the  cover.  We  walked  away  to  a 
distance,  and  soon  heard  the  mother  calling  her 
brood  of  little  ones  to  the  shelter  of  her  protec- 
tion. The  young  are  very  quick  and  cunning  at 
concealment.  As  soon  as  they  hear  the  mother's 
warning  cry  they  dart  into  cover,  and,  if  there  is 
no  other  at  hand,  they  will  seize  a  leaf  with  bill 
and  feet,  and  turn  over  so  that  it  may  conceal 
them.  While  the  party  remained  above  the  bend 
of  the  Cass  river  there  came  up  a  tremendous 
thunder-storm,  followed  by  a  cold  wind  from  Lake 
Huron.      Previous   to   the    storm   the   cock    ruffed 


EUFFKD-GR0U8E    SHOOTING.  115 

grouse  could  be  heard  drumming  in  all  directions. 
It  is  a  flat,  alluvial  country,  much  of  the  bottom- 
land being  overflowed  early  in  spring,  as  all  the 
wet  prairies  thereabouts  are ;  but,  nevertheless, 
these  bottoms  abounded  with  grouse  in  the  breed- 
ing-season. 

The  ruflfed  grouse  can  seldom  be  relied  upon  to 
fill  the  game-bag  alone ;  for  the  most  part  it  is 
sparsely  and  thinly  distributed  over  the  regions  it 
inhabits,  though  in  some  secluded  spots  where 
they  have  not  been  disturbed  a  good  number  may 
sometimes  be  killed  in  the  fall  before  the  broods 
have  dispersed.  It  is  as  wild  in  disposition  as 
any  bird  that  flies.  The  young  of  the  pinnated 
grouse  may  be  brought  up  in  confinement,  but  I 
do  not  think  those  of  the  ruflfed  grouse  can  be 
reared  in  the  same  way.  I  began  to  shoot  ruflfed 
grouse,  when  still  a  boy,  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Burnville,  Albany  County,  New  York,  in  company 
with  a  man  named  Paul  Hochstosser.  He  was  a 
hunter  by  calling,  and  a  good  one,  well  versed  in 
the  woodcraft  of  the  region,  and  the  best  shot 
with  the  double-barrelled  gun  then  in  those  parts. 
The  first  bird  I  ever  killed  was  a  ruffed  grouse 
perched  in  a  hemlock-tree.  He  was  on  an  arm 
close  to  the  trunk   of    the    tree,  bolt    upright,  with 


116  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

his  neck  stretched  up.  This  is  their  habit  when 
they  take  to  trees,  and  they  are  not  easily  distin- 
guished from  knots.  I  knew  their  habits,  and 
had  good  eyes.  That  day  I  had  played  truant 
from  school,  and,  taking  my  father's  old  firelock,  I 
went  out  to  hunt.  The  greater  part  of  the  day 
was  gone  before  1  got  one  of  the  birds  I  saw  in  a 
proper  sitting  position.  However,  there  he  was  at 
last,  and  as  I  was  too  small  to  hold  the  musket 
out  and  take  aim  from  the  shoulder  alones,  I 
steadied  it  against  the  bole  of  another  tree.  Bang 
she  went,  and  down  came  the  grouse,  but  only 
winged.  There  was  snow  on  the  ground,  and,  boy- 
like, I  dropped  the  old  musket  into  it,  and  went 
for  the  wounded  grouse.  The  ground  was  a  steep 
hillside,  the  bird  fluttered  down  it,  and  I  went 
after,  tumbling  and  rolling  for  as  much  as  a  hun- 
dred yards.  But  I  secured  it  at  last,  and  thinking 
it  was  glory  enough  for  one  day,  as  the  saying  is, 
I  recovered  the  old  musket  and  returned  home. 
The  truancy  was  condoned  because  of  the  bird. 
After  that  I  hunted  every  time  I  could  get  a 
chance  to  do  so.  1  soon  got  hold  of  a  single-bar- 
relled gun  with  a  percussion-lock,  and  by  perse- 
verance for  some  time  learned  to  shoot  on  the 
wing.      Paul    was    a    great   woodcock-shooter,   and 


KUFFED-GROUSK    SHOOTING.  117 

"W'c  sometimes  shot  in  company.  In  going  after 
ruffed  grouse  in  those  days  we  used  to  take  a 
small  spaniel  dog,  which  would  flush  them  out  of 
the  brush,  and  cause  them  to  take  to  the  trees. 
They  are  not  easy  to  distinguish,  as  1  said  before, 
when  on  the  tree,  from  their  sitting  upright  close 
to  the  trunk,  their  plumage  being  somewhat  the 
color  of  the  bark.  This  habit  must  be  remicm- 
bered  by  the  sportsman  when  he  believes  the  bird 
is  treed,  but  is  unable  to  make  him  out.  When 
several  have  taken  to  the  same  tree,  shoot  the  one 
which  sits  lowest  first,  and  the  others  will  not 
take  wing.  If  the  upper  one  is  shot,  its'  fall  starts 
the  others  off.  More  ruffed  grouse  are  shot  sit- 
ting than  flying.  It  is  a  very  hard  bird  to  shoot 
on  the  wing — hard  to  hit  and  hard  to  kill.  Other 
birds,  when  flushed  in  woodland,  fly  for  the  openings 
in  the  trees ;  the  ruffed  grouse,  on  the  contrary, 
plunges  right  into  the  densest  part  of  the  thicket. 
The  man  Avho  commonly  kills  the  ruffed  grouse  ho 
shoots  at  on  the  wing  is  fit  to  hold  his  own  at  any 
sort  of  shooting  on  the  wing.  The  bird  com- 
monly rises  in  difficult  ground  with  a  whirr  like 
the  sudden  roar  of  a  waterfall,  and  goes  away 
at  electric  pace  for  the  thickest  part  of  the  brake. 
The    birds    were    scarce    in    Albany    County,    New 


118  I'lELU    SllOOTlNU. 

York.  The  most  I  ever  killed  in  a.  day  there 
was  six.  In  Cook  County,  Illinois,  I  have  killed 
fifteen  in  a  day.  In  Missouri,  on  Shoal  Creek, 
when  I  was  hunting  turkeys,  I  found  ruffed  grouse 
in  fair  numbers,  considering  the  nature  and  habits 
of  the  bird,  and  killed  forty  or  fifty  in  the 
three  weeks  I  stayed  there.  Of  all  the  places 
I  know,  the  ruffed  grouse  are  most  plentiful  in 
the  timber-lands  of  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota  and 
the  upper  part  of  Michigan.  But  it  is  a  bird  of 
very  secluded  habits,  and  when  settlements  have 
become  thick  and  much  of  the  timber  has  been 
cleared  off,  it  disappears.  A  well-watered  timber 
country,  with  plenty  of  thick  underbrush  among  rifts 
and  gullies,  is  the  place  to  look  for  it  as  a  com- 
mon rule,  though  they  are  also  found  in  the  great 
woods  of  heavy-timbered  bottom-land.  In  looking 
for  ruffed  grouse  especially  I  use  No.  8  shot,  and, 
if  I  found  them  while  turkey-shooting,  I  changed  the 
cartridge.  I  do  not  use  spaniels  now,  but  shoot 
ruffed  grouse  over  setters.  They  will  lie  pretty  well 
to  the  dogs  sometimes,  and  where  not  shot  at  will 
sometimes  strut  off  in  front  of  him  in  plain  sight. 
When  shot  at  much  and  wild,  the  ruffed  grouse  must 
be  pt)inted  by  the  dog  from  a  considerable  distance. 
it  will   not   let   him  get  close,  and  as  soon    as    the 


K0FFED-GROUSE    SHOOTING.  119 

setter  moves  a  step  forward  the  grouse  springs 
up  and  goes  away  like  a  bullet  for  the  thickest 
part  of  the  cover.  I  have  seen  stories  in  print  of 
ruffed  grouse  taking  to  water,  of  its  being  caught 
and  let  go,  and  then  caught  again.  I  do  not  be- 
lieve one  word  of  such  things.  The  man  who 
invented  them  can  know  but  little  of  the  nature 
and  habits  of  this  very  wild  bird.  In  the  deep 
snows  of  winter  the  ruffed  grouse  roost  under  the 
snow.  They  dart  at  it  Avith  great  speed,  and 
make  a  sort  of  l>urrow  beneath  the  surface.  At 
other  times  they  roost  on  the  ground.  When  out 
coon-hunting  at  night,  I  have  often  put  them  up 
from  their  roosts  on  the  ground.  It  has  beeu 
maintained  that  they  sometimes  roost  in  trees  ; 
and  as  they  certainly  take  to  trees  readily  enough 
when  flushed  by  a  barking  dog,  and  feed  on  the 
buds  of  trees,  it  seems  reasonable  to  believe  that 
they  may  sometimes  roost  in  them.  On  the  other 
hand,  many  men  of  experience  declare  that  they 
never  roost  in  trees.  I  have  often  seen  them  in 
trees  very  early  in  the  morning,  but  it  was  out  at 
the  ends  of  the  branches,  feeding  on  the  young 
buds.  ^  I  will  not  positively  affirm  that  the  ruffed 
grouse  never  roosts  in  trees,  but  1  think  it  never 
does  so  when  it  cail  help  it.     In  very  severe  weather. 


120  FIELD    SHOOTIK0. 

when  tho  crust  upon  the  snow  is  too  strong  to  l>e 
pierced,  the  bird  may  seek  shelter  under  the 
thick  boughs  of  pines,  and  close  to  the  trunk  on 
the  leeward  side.  It  can  stand  a  great  deal  of 
cold,  and,  unlike  some  other  birds,  can  always 
find  its  food — the  buds  and  tender  twigs  of  trees 
and  shrubs — in  the  hardest  weather.  The  sports- 
man who  goes  into  the  places  the  ruffed  grouse 
frequents  will  see  some  of  the  most  picturesque 
scenes  and  romantic  landscapes  that  the  country 
affords.  Hills  and  ravii:^s,  secluded  woodland 
dells,  the  foliage  rich  and  ripe  Avith  the  deep 
tints  of  autumn,  will  meet  his  eye,  while  the 
music  of  mountain-brooks  and  the  roar  of 
waterMls    will   fill   his   ears. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

SHOOTING    THE    WOODCOCK. 

In  the  estimation  of  sportsmen  in  this  country, 
as  well  as  in  Europe,  the  woodcock  is  regarded 
as  one  of  the  very  highest  game-birds.  To 
make  a  good  bag  of  woodcock  is  a  feat  to  be 
proud  of.  The  bird  is  generally  scarce,  even  on 
the  best  ground,  and  in  its  most  favorite  haunts 
it  is  difficult  to  find  and  kill,  and  is  one  of  the 
richest  morsels  on  the  table  that  the  woods  and 
fields  supply.  The  woodcock  of  America  slightly 
differs  from  that  of  Europe  in  size  and  markings, 
but  the  variations  are  of  no  moment  to  the  sports- 
man. Upon  this  continent  the  woodcock  winters 
in  the  Southern  States,  and  in  regions  still  further 
south,  and  comes  north  in  spring,  remaining  till 
the  ground  freezes  late  in  the  fall.  The  bird 
breeds  in  Canada  and  Nova  Scotia,  as  well  as  in 
northern  and  middle  States  of  the  Union,  East 
and  West ;  and  it  sometimes  rears  two  broods 
in  a  season.  This  is  not,  however,  commonly 
the    case,    but    it    is    certain    that    when    the    old 

121 


122  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

birds  have  lost  their  nests  or  their  young 
through  floods  in  the  breeding-time,  they  rear  a 
late  brood.  The  woodcock  arrives  north  in 
March,  and  generally  builds  in  -April.  Much 
depends,  however,  upon  the  earliness  or  lateness  of 
the  spring,  which  sometimes  varies  nearly  a 
month.  Its  nest  has  been  found  in  March  in 
very  early  situations,  but  it  is  believed  that  in 
such  cases  they  were  those  of  old  birds  which 
had  passed  a  mild  winter  in  some  chosen, 
sheltered  spot,  and  never  gone  south  at  all.  It 
is  reasonable  that  after  having  made  its  migra- 
tion from  the  far  south  to  the  latitude  of  New 
York,  Illinois,  Michigan,  and  Canada,  the  birds 
would  require  some  weeks  for  restoration  before 
laying  their  eggs.  The  nest  is  made  on  the 
ground,  in  a  piece  of  woods  or  brushy  swamp, 
and  is  composed  of  grass  and  leaves.  The  hen 
lays  four,  sometimes  five  eggs,  and  the  young 
run  as  soon  as  hatched ;  the  little  ones  are 
active  and  rather  cunning  at  hiding,  though  not 
to  such  an  extent  as  the  chicks  of  the  ruffed 
grouse.  The  woodcock  displays  the  same  care 
and  manifests  as  much  devotion  to  her  young  as 
the  ruffed  grouse,  and  employs  the  same  expe- 
dient  of    simulating   lameness   to  draw    off  an    in- 


SHOOTING    THE    WOODCOCK.  123 

truder  from  their  neighborhood.  The  hen-wood- 
cock is  a  tame  bird  when  sitting,  and  will  not 
leave  her  nest  for  any  light  reason.  When  I 
was  a  boy,  they  used  to  build  in  a  swamp  on 
my  father's  farm  in  Albany  County,  New  York, 
where  I  have  more  than  once  crawled  up  and 
caught  the  old  bird  in  my  hand,  and  released 
her  after  looking  at  her  eggs.  This  would  not 
induce  her  to  forsake  her  nest,  and  in  this  she 
differs  from  some  other  wild  birds.  Wild  ducks 
are  not  easily  driven  from  their  nests,  and,  after 
being  disturbed  once  or  twice,  will  still  return 
again.  The  English  pheasant,  if  once  flushed 
directly  off  her  eggs,  always  forsakes  them.  I 
never  saw  more  than  five  eggs  in  a  woodcock's 
nest,  and  usually  there  are  but  four.  It  has 
been  stated  that  a  woodcock's  nest,  with  eight 
full-fledged  young  ones,  was  found  on  the  banks 
of  Loch  Lomond,  in  Scotland.  I  believe  these 
were  the  young  of  some  other  bird,  if  eight 
were  found,  for  the  story  is  almost  absurd  on 
its  face.  Young  woodcocks,  full-fledged,  are 
never  found  in  a  nest.  The  young,  when  first 
hatched,  might  be,  but  they  are  then  covered 
with  dowle,  and  not  with  feathers.  The  wood- 
cock  has   been  kept    in    confinement,    and   proved 


124  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

itself  to  be  a  A^oracious  feeder.  It  was  no 
small  trouble  to  keep  it  supplied  with  worms. 
It  bored  in  to  the  earth  given  to  it,  and  was  always 
ready  for  food.  The  digestion  of  the  woodcock 
is  very  rapid.  This  accounts  for  the  fact  that 
birds  which  arrive  poor  speedily  get  condition  in 
good  ground. 

For  the  procurement  of  its  food,  for  which  it 
bores  in  soft,  moist  ground,  fat,  loamy  soils,  and 
rich  vegetable  mould,  it  has  a  long,  slender 
bill,  very  sensitive,  and  a  long,  prehensile  tongue 
with  barbs  on  the  end.  The  young  grow  rapidly 
where  the  lying  is  good  and  the  food  plentiful. 
In  favorable  seasons  they  have  attained  their 
growth  by  the  fourth  of  July,  when  the  shoot- 
ing commences.  But  in  some  places,  in  some 
years,  they  are  not  above  two-thirds  grown  at 
that  date.  I  saw  woodcock  at  Boston  this  year 
in  the  middle  of  July  not  two-thirds  grown,  and 
it  M^as  a  pity  they  had  been  ^hot.  After  the 
broods  have  once  dispersed,  the  woodcock  is  a 
solitary  bird.  It  is  true  that  a  number  of  them 
may  sometimes  be  found  in  the  same  swale, 
"  cripple,"  or  piece  of  woodland,  but  that  is 
because  the  lying  of  the  place  suits  them,  and 
the  boring  is  good,  worms  and  the  larvoe  of  insects 


SHOOTING    THE    WOODCOCK.  125 

being  abundant  in  the  soil.  The  woodcock  does 
not  frequent  sandy,  thirsty  soils,  nor  gravelly 
ground,  nor  sour,  wet  meadows.  It  wants  warmth 
and  richness,  as  well  as  plenty  of  moisture.  The 
bird  is  nocturnal  in  its  habits,  and  its  great  eye, 
placed  far  backwards  and  upwards  in  its  large 
head,  enables  it  to  see-  by  night  and  in  the  gloom 
t)f  the  thick  coverts  in  which  it  lies  by  day.  It 
never  flies  by  day,  unless  disturbed,  and  seldom 
feeds  in  the  daytime,  unless  it  be  on  rare  occa- 
sions in  the  thick  shade  of  some  moist  and  closely 
overgrown  spot  in  its  cover.  Late  in  the  evening, 
when  it  is  nearly  dark,  the  woodcock  leave  the 
cover,  and  betake  themselves  to  wet,  rich  places 
to  bore  for  their  food.  It  used  to  be  a  popular 
notion  that  woodcock  and  snipe  ate  nothing,  and 
lived  merely  by  what  was  called  suction ;  whereas 
they  arc  both  voracious  feeders  and  like  the 
richest  quality  of  food — namely,  the  plump  worms 
and  insects  to  be  found  in  fat  soils.  After  indus- 
triously spending  the  night  in  finding  food  to 
satisfy  his  enormous*  appetite,  the  woodcock  re- 
turns just  before  dawn  of  day  to  the  thick  brake 
or  close  overgrown  "  cripple,"  in  which  he  lies 
while  the  daylight  lasts.  Where  there  is  good 
lying  and   good   feeding  ground,  woodcock   may  be 


126  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

found  in  the  season,  and  in  spots  where  ono 
bird  has  been  shot  it  is  common  for  another  to 
take  its  place  in  a  day  or  two.  Where  such 
birds  come  from,  and  why  they  did  not  come 
before  the  place  was  tenantlcss,  is  not  known. 
Although  in  some  sort  methodical  in  its  ways 
and  habits,  the  woodcock  often  seems  to  be 
erratic  in  its  comings  and  goings  to  and  from 
certain  localities.  Some  days  the  birds  will  be 
found  plentiful,  for  them,  in  certain  ground.  On 
another  day,  without  any  obvious  reason  for  their 
absence,  not  one  can  be  puf  up  in  the  same 
piece.  The  weather  or  some  other  cause  un- 
known has  induced  them  to  make  a  local  change, 
and  this  has  sometimes  been  magnified,  I  think, 
into  a  second  migration  or  a  permanent  removal 
to  the  uplands  and  bluffs.  I  do  not  believe  that 
there  is  any  second  migration  northwards  of  the 
woodcock  after  breeding-time ;  nor  do  I  believe 
that  the  birds  go  to  the  uplands  and  bluffs,  and 
stay  there  until  the  beginning  of  October.  It 
is  not  true  that  no  woodcock*  are  to  be  found  in 
their  usual  haunts  in  September.  I  have  found 
and  shot  them  myself  in  that  month  in  fair  num- 
bers. It  is  true  that  there  are  not  as  many 
as      there      were      in     July,     and     for     the     very 


SHOOTING    THE    WOODCOCK.  127 

good  reason  that  vast  numbers  have  been  shot, 
while  those  which  are  left  have  become  more 
wild  and  wary.  Another  reason  for  the  seeming 
absence  of  birds,  except  here  and  there,  is  simply 
this :  with  us,  grouse-shooting  in  the  latter  part  of 
August  and  September  is  so  much  easier,  and 
affords  so  much  greater  chance  of  success,  that 
very  few  go  after  woodcock  in  those  months,  and 
the  birds  have  it  all  to  themselves  in  woody 
swales,  tangled  thickets,  and  the  islands  over- 
grown with  the  willow  and  the  alder,  until  October 
brings  down  the  great  division  of  birds  bred  to 
the  northward  of  the  United  States. 

Early  in  the  season  and  during  the  hot  weather 
the  woodcock  is  a  lazy  bird,  and  seems  to  labor 
in  its  flight.  It  is  not,  however,  easy  to  kill  on 
that  account,  for  when  it  rises,  often  very  close 
to  you,  it  goes  up  among  the  thick  foliage,  right 
on  end,  as  it  were,  to  the  top  of  the  cover,  and 
then,  after  flying  horizontally  for  about  twenty 
yards,  it  suddenly  flops  down  again.  When  it 
do*  this  after  being  shot  at,  men  often  think 
they  have  killed  it,  while  in  truth  not  a  feather 
has  beeii  touched.  The  thickness  of  the  covert  in 
full  leaf  prevents  the  shooter  from  having  any- 
thing  but   a   glimpse   of    the   bird,   and    he    must 


128  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

make  a  snap-shot  at  where  intuition  tells  him  the 
woodcock  ought  to  be.  Besides  this  difficulty,  the 
upward  flight  is  calculated  to  distract  the  aim, 
even  when  the  bird  is  not  absolutely  concealed 
by  the  density  of  the  foliage.  Commonly  it  is 
flip-flap  of  the  wing,  and  the  woodcock  has  gone 
away,  often  not  scon  by  the  sportsman  at  all. 
In  some  places  it  is  practicable  to  send  the  dog 
in  to  beat  the  thicket  while  you  remain  on  the 
edge  to  shoot  as  the  cock  fly.  Where  the  brush 
is  short  this  may  be  done,  and,  if  there  are  many 
birds,  the  sport  will  be  good.  Three  years  ago 
I  had  some  nice  shooting  by  following  this  me- 
thod on  Rock  River,  Illinois.  When  the  cover  is 
large,  and  the  timber  and  saplings  are  twenty  feet 
high,  the  above-mentioned  plan  will  not  work. 
You  must  go  m  then  with  the  dogs,  and  take 
your  chance  of  snap-shots.  Later  in  the  year  the 
woodcock  is  sometimes  found  in  more  open  pieces 
of  timber — that  is,  in  places  where  the  under- 
brush is  not  so  very  thick.  But  it  is  still  a 
pretty  hard  bird  to  shoot,  for  now  it  flies  like 
a  bullet,  and  zigzags  and  twists  about  among 
the  close-standing  stems,  going  for  an  opening 
through  which  to  make  a  straight  flight.  The 
woodcock   flushed    in    cover    always    goes    for    an 


SHOOTING    THE    WOODCOCK.  129 

Opening;  the  ruffed  grouse  never  does,  but  sets 
sail  for  the  closest  and  densest  part.  Now,  when 
the  woodcock  is  going  swift  and  twisting  among 
the  stems  of  the  saplings,  he  is  very  easy  to  miss, 
and  sportsmen  who  make  good  bags  of  cock  in 
the  prime  of  the  fall  season  have  a  right  to  be 
proud  of  their  exploits.  This  sort  of  shooting  is 
much  more  pleasant  than  that  to  be  followed  in 
the  tangled  "  cripples "  of  New  Jersey,  all  over- 
grown with  cat-briers  and  thick  brush,  with  no 
good  footing  where  you  are,  and  no  possibility 
of  knowing  where  you  will  be  next.  In  Albany 
County,  New  York,  we  used  to  use  cocking-spanicls 
when  woodcock-shooting.  I  have  had  none  of  that 
l)reed  in  the  West,  and  now  employ  setters. 
They  arc  bolder  and  better  iu  forcing  their  way 
in  rough  places  than  pointers.  The  thin  skins  of 
the  latter  get  all  cut  and  torn,  and  their  feet 
give  out.  But  the  best  dogs  I  have  ever  had  for. 
general  sport,  take  one  sort  of  shooting  with  an- 
other, have  been  cross-bred  between  the  setter 
and  the  pointer.  For  work  these  beat  any  pure- 
bred dog  I  ever  owned,  and,  I  may  add,  ever 
saw.  But  concerning  this  1  shall  treat  further  on. 
A  great  many  woodcock  may  be  found  about 
Lockport,    Illinois,   forty   miles   southwest    of    Chi-_ 


130  FIELD    SH0OTINO. 

cago,  but  the  brush  is  so  thick  in  the  swamps  in 
summer  and  early  fall  that  the  shooting  is  diffi- 
cult. There  are  a  few  on  the  Sangamon,  but 
only  a  few.  On  the  bottoms  and  islands  of  the 
upper  Mississippi  River,  right  down  to  St.  Louis, 
many  woodcock  may  be  found.  The  bottoms 
and  islands  are  rich  alluvial  mould,  and  the  wood- 
cock finds  himself  well  placed  in  them  for  cover, 
for  food  and  breeding-places.  The  brush  com- 
monly grows  down  to  the  water's  edge,  and  old 
logs  lie  among  the  bushes.  The  woodcock  also 
frequents  the  thickets  on  the  edges  of  the  bayous 
and  sloughs,  and,  when  the  bottoms  have  been 
overflowed,  the  birds  use  them  as  soon  as  the 
water  has  receded.  During  the  floods  they  shift 
their  places,  and  lie  further  from  the  rivers, 
but  in  the  same  sort  of  ground  as  before.  In 
New  York  they  were  sometimes  found  in  wet 
corn-fields  adjacent  to  cover,  but  I  do  not  think 
they  ever  are  in  the  West.  On  the  Illinois  River, 
about  Pekin,  Peoria,  and  Havana,  there  is  fair 
woodcock-shooting ;  but  the  bird  is  scarce  every- 
where in  the  West,  compared  with  other  sorts 
of  game.  Indeed,  the  woodcock  is  not  only  rela- 
tively scarce  in  the  West,  but,  as  1  thirk,  abso- 
lutely  scarcer  than  in   the   Atlantic  States.      There 


SHOOTING    THE    WOODCOCK.  131 

is  not  lu  the  prairie  States  so  much  of  the  sort 
of  ground  the  woodcock  likes  as  there  is  further 
cast,  I  do,  indeed,  know  of  plenty  of  ground  in 
Central  Illinois  which  one  would  think  just  suit- 
able for  woodcock,  Lut,  owing  to  some  reason 
which  I  have  never  been  able  to  discover,  the 
birds  are  not  found  there.  A  stray  one  or  two 
may  be  picked  up  occasionally,  but  they  are 
never  there  in  any  number.  I  suppose  it  to  be 
owing  to  some  peculiarity  in  the  soil.  These 
neighborhoods  have  much  of  the  right  kind  of 
food,  ano  snipe  abound  near  them ;  but  for  some 
reason  the  woodcock  does  not  like  them.  About 
the  middle  of  October  there  is  a  great  increase 
in  the  number  of  woodcock  in  the  bottoms 
and  islands  of  the  Mississippi  and  Illinois  rivers. 
Flights  of  those  bred  further  north  then  arrive, 
and  they  stay  until  driven  away  by  sharp  frosts. 
When  they  first  arrive  from  the  North,  the  leaves 
are  still  thick,  but  the  white  frosts,  which  are 
quite  insufficient  to  freeze  the  ground  and  drive 
the  woodcock  south,  wilt  the  leaves,  and  then 
the  shooting  is  pleasant  and  good.  Generally 
speaking,  the  woodcock  remain  well  along  through 
November,  and  some  seasons  they  have  not  all 
gone   by    the    1st   of    December.       They   like    the 


132  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

neighborhood  of  little  streams  which  trickle  through 
brush  and  among  timber.  The  most  ^  ever  killed 
in  a  day  was  fifteen  couple.  I  have  heard  men 
boast  of  having  killed  fifty  couple  in  a  day ;  but 
if  they  did  it,  the  birds  must  have  been  vastly 
more  abimdant  than  I  ever  saw  them  anywhere. 
The  woodcock  is  easily  killed  when  you  can  get 
an  open  shot;  but  that  is  rather  seldom,  except 
at  the  last  of  the  season  and  m  such  small  patches 
of  short  brush  as  1  mentioned  above.  A  wood- 
cock, when  winged,  does  not  run  off  as  quail  do. 
The  birds  have  tw  sorts  of  flight  In  one  it 
goes  laboring  and  slow,  just  over  the  tops  of  the 
branches,  to  which  height  it  has  risen  almost  per- 
pendicularly, and  then  it  soon  flops  down  again. 
Its  other  mode  of  flight  is  swiftly  away  among 
the  stems  of  the  trees,  darting  here  and  there 
until  it  has  found  its  opening,  along  which  it  goes 
like  a  bullet.  I  was  told  in  the  South  that  it  is 
very  plentiful  along  the  edges  of  the  bayous  in 
the  winter  there.  The  negroes  go  out  by  night 
in  boats  with  torches,  and,  paddling  along,  the 
woodcock  on  the  muddy  margin  are  knocked  down 
M  ith  sticks.  I  heard  of  this,  but  never  saw  it,  and 
merely  tell  the  tale  as  it  was  told  to  me. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE    SNIPE    AND    SNIPE-SHOOTING. 

This  well-known  and  excellent  little  bird  of 
passage  is  to  be  found  all  over  the  country,  in 
suitable  ground,  at  the  times  of  the  spring  and 
fall  migrations.  It  winters  about  the  wet  rice- 
fields  of  the  Southern  States,  and  comes  north  in 
the  spring,  going  to  its  breeding-grounds,  which  are 
mainly  in  higher  latitudes  than  the  United  States, 
It  is  true  that  a  few  remain  all  summer  in  the 
Eastern  States,  and  also  in  those  to  the  westward, 
and  rear  broods  of  young;  but  by  far  the  larger 
number  continue  towards  the  north,  pausing  about 
a  month  in  the  middle  latitudes.  It  does  not 
breed  south  of  Virginia.  In  Kentucky,  Indiana, 
and  Michigan  some  snipe  are  bred  in  the  sedges 
of  the  wet  prairies  and  about  the  edges  of  the 
wild  rice-swamps.  In  Illinois  a  few  nests  are 
made  about  the  Calumet,  and  some  in  the  great 
Winnebago  Swamp,  which  is  part  pool,  and 
a  great  deal  of  high  grass  marsh.  About  Co- 
lumbus, Kentucky,  the  first  flights  of  spring  snipe 
133 


134  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

arrive  on  the  river-bottoms  by  the  first  of  March 
in  an  early  spring,  but  much  depends  upon  the 
forwardness  of  the  "  season  and  the  state  of  the 
"weather.  The  snipe  need  not  be  looked  for  until 
the  frost  is  quite  out  of  the  ground,  no  matter 
how  genial  and  pleasant  the  days  may  be.  The 
reason  seems  to  be  plain.  As  long  as  there  is 
frost  in  the  ground  the  worms  and  larvae  of  in- 
sects upon  which  snipe  feed  are  underneath  the 
frozen  strata,  and  cannot  be  found  in  the  soft  mud 
of  the  surface.  In  Illinois  and  Northern  Indiana  the 
frost  holds  in  the  ground  much  longer  than  in  South- 
ern Kentucky.  It  penetrates  a  good  deal  deeper, 
and  the  spring  is  more  backward  than  in  the  last- 
named  region.  Hence  the  snipe  do  not  come  to 
the  Calumet,  the  Winnebago  Swamp,  the  Sanga- 
mon, and  the  other  favorite  haunts  which  it  fre- 
quents in  Illinois,  until  nearly  a  month  after  they 
have  appeared  at  Columbus.  When  they  first 
arrive,  the  birds  are  thin  and  wild,  and  do  not 
lie  well.  In  a  short  tijne,  however,  they  get  very 
fat  and  become  lazy.  I  find  that  in  New  Jersey 
the  fall  snipe-shooting  is  the  best,  and  that  the 
birds  tarry  so  short  a  time  in  the  spring  that 
sometimes  there  is  scarcely  any  spring  snipe-shoot- 
ing  at    all.     Now,  with    us    the    reverse   of  this    is 


THE    SNIPE    AND    SNIPE-SHOOTING.  135 

the  case.  The  snipe  stay  much  longer  in  the 
spring  in  the  Western  States  than  they  do  in  the 
fall,  and  they  distribute  themselves  more  over  the 
face  of  the  country.  In  the  autumn  migration 
they  keep  more  to  the  lines  of  the  great  rivers, 
and  stay  but  a  short  time.  One  reason,  no  doubt, 
is  that  in  the  spring  there  is  much  more  wet 
ground,  such  as  suits  the  snipe.  In  the  fall  many 
places  in  which  the  birds  lie  thick  in  April  are 
quite  dry,  and  no  longer  suitable  as  feeding- 
places.  The  snipe  likes  wet  places  even  more 
than  the  woodcock.  His  favorite  resorts  are  wet 
bogs,  plashy  places  in  grassy  meadows,  the  rich, 
moist  ground  of  river-bottoms,  and  the  margins 
of  grassy  sloughs  and  bayous — 

"  By  the  rushy,  fringed  bank, 
Where  grow  the  willow  and  the  ozier  dank ! " 

The  best  snipe-shooting  with  us  is  in  the  spring 
of  the  year,  though  very  good  sport  may  be  had 
in  the  fall.  In  the  spring  I  have  sometimes 
killed  from  twenty-five  to  fifty  couple  a  day  for 
many  days  together.  When  the  birds  first  come, 
they  are  poor  and  wild,  and  the  shooting  is  difficult ; 
but  a  little  time  spent  upon  the  rich  bottom-land, 
which  swarms  with  worms  and  other  food,  puts  them 


136  FIELD   SHOOTIKG. 

in  flesh.  They  are  able  to  indulge  their  sharp  and 
almost  insatiable  appetite,  and  soon  grow  fat.  I 
shot  snipe  several  spring  seasons  in  company  with 
K.  M.  Patchen,  of  Atlanta,  Logan  County,  Illinois. 
Our  favorite  ground  was  the  Salt  Creek  bottoms 
on  the  Sangamon,  and  I  doubt  whether  there  is 
any  better  ground  in  the  world.  We  have  killed 
as  many  as  three  hundred  and  forty  in  a  day, 
and  our  bag  was  seldom  as  small  as  seventy-five 
couple  at  the  right  time.  The  ground  we  shot 
over  was  the  grassy,  sedgy  bottoms  along  Salt 
Creek,  near  where  it  falls  into  Sangamon  Eiver, 
and  across  the  latter  stream  along  the  bottoms 
in  Mason  County.  The  shooting  there  begins 
about  the  first  of  April.  In  many  places  the  bot- 
toms at  that  time  of  the  year  have  been  recently 
overflowed,  and  a  scum  of  mud  and  slop  is 
left,  in  which  the  snipe  seem  to  delight.  Snipe 
are  vastly  more  abundant  in  the  West,  in  the 
proper  snipe-ground,  than  they  are  in  the  East, 
I  find  that  in  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania 
snipe-shooters  think  they  have  had  an  average  fair 
day's  sport  if  they  have  killed  about  eight 
couple.  Now,  we  should  not  think  we  had  been 
shooting  at  all  if  we  killed  no  more  than  that 
number. 


THE    SNIPE    AND    SNIPE-SHOOTING.  137 

A  great  many  people  go  up-wind  when  after 
snipe,  believing  that  it  gives  a  much  better  chance 
to  the  dogs.  I  always  go  down-wind,  and  use  no 
dog  at  all,  except  for  retrieving  purposes.  There 
is  no  need  to  use  a  dog  to  find  snipe  on  good 
snipe-ground  at  the  proper  times  and  seasons. 
The  bird  always  rises  against  the  wind,  and  flies 
up-wind  or  across  it,  making  zigzags  when  he 
first  gets  under  way.  Now,  if  you  are  to  wind- 
ward of  the  bird  when  it  rises,  it  is  nearly  cer- 
tain to  give  you  a  side  shot.  As  I  remarked 
before,  when  they  first  come  from  the  south  in  the 
spring,  the  snipe  are  wild.  Their  numbers  are  very 
large,  but  the  ground-  is  nearly  bare,  the  grass 
having  but  just  started.  Four  or  five  will  get 
up  together,  and  sometimes  as  many  as  twenty, 
all  uttering  the  shrill  squeak  which  they  make  on 
taking  wing.  The  rich  bottoms,  low,  marshy 
ground  around  sloughs,  and  wet  corn-fields,  are 
good  places  to  look  for  snipe.  As  they  eat  the 
plump  worms  and  other  rich  food  which  they  find 
in  abundance  in  the  loamy  soils  and  black,  vege- 
table deposits,  the  snipe  become  fat,  and  then 
they  lie  close  and  well.  I  never  found  any  diffi- 
culty in  shooting  them  then.  Later  on  in  the 
season  still  they  got  very  fat,  and  will  hardly  rise 


138  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

at  all,  save  when  put  up  by  a  noise  like  that  of 
their  own  squeak.  That  is  the  only  way  to  make 
them  rise,  and  their  flight  is  lazy  and  slow. 
Those  which  remain  after  the  first  of  May  are 
then  so  fat  that  they  can  hardly  fly  at  all,  and 
when  they  are  picked  at  this  time  they  look  like 
a  lump  of  fat  bacon.  When  not  over-fat,  snipe 
fly  swift.  They  hang  on  the  wind  for  an  instant, 
and  then  dart  away  zigzag  up-wind  or  across  the 
wind.  I  have  several  times  killed  two  with  one 
barrel,  and  on  one  occasion  I  killed  three.  It  was 
in  Logan  County,  as  I  was  walking  along  the 
bank  of  a  little  slough.  The  three  snipe  got  up 
in  line,  the  nearest  within  twenty  yards,  and  they 
all  three  fell  to  the  right  barrel.  When  they  first 
come  in  the  spring,  it  is  difficult  to  shoot  snipe  in 
the  corn-fields.  They  dodge  about  among  the 
stalks,  and  rarely  rise  over  the  tops  of  them.  A 
man  who  kills  three  out  of  four  in  the  corn-fields 
at  that  time  is  a  good  shot.  In  shooting  over 
the  bottom-land  it  is  best  for  two  guns  to  be  in 
company,  and  to  walk  down-wind  some  thirty  or 
forty  yards  apart.  Nearly  all  the  birds  may  then 
be  got.  The  shooters  will  be  nearly  certain  to  kill 
all  the  birds  that  rise  between  them,  if  they  are 
good    shots.      In    shooting    at    snipe  it    is    a    great 


THE    SNIPE    AND    SNIPE-SHOOTING.  139 

error  to  shoot  too  quick.  The  snipe,  at  first 
getting  on  the  wing,  twists  and  wires  in  and  out 
in  his  flight.  If  shot  at  then,  it  may  be  killed, 
but  is  more  likely  to  be  missed.  By  waiting 
until  it  has  gone  a  rod  or  two  you  may  get  a 
much  easier  shot.  The  flight  of  the  bird  is  then 
straight,  and,  though  it  presents  but  a  small  mark, 
there  is  no  real  difficulty  in  hitting  it.  Side 
shots  are  the  best  of  all  for  a  good  shot.  Be- 
ginners are  somewhat  apt  to  shoot  behind  the 
bird.  The  right  time  to  pull  the  trigger  is  just 
as  the  snipe  begins  the  direct  flight.  It  is  not 
a  hard  bird  to  kill  on  the  bottoms,  even  while 
somewhat  Avild,  if  you  can  shoot  well  and  go 
the  right  way  about  your  beat,  which  is  down- 
wind. Afterwards,  when  they  have  got  fat,  it  is 
as  easy  to  kill  as  any  bird  I  know  of.  In 
talking  with  General  Strong,  who  is  a  good 
sportsman  and  fine  shot,  and  other  gentlemen  of 
Chicago,  about  snipe-shooting,  I  found  it  was  their 
impression  that  it  was  a  hard  bird  to  shoot. 
Now,  I  knew  well  that,  taken  in  the  right  way, 
at  the  right  time,  it  was  a  very  easy  bird  to 
kill ;  and  I  offered  to  back  myself  to  shoot  and 
bag  a  hundred  snipe  in  a  hundred  consecutive 
shots.      If   1  missed  one  shut  out  of   the  one  hun- 


140  FIELD    SHOOTHTO. 

dred,  I  was  to  be  the  loser.  I  was  willing  to  put 
up  the  money,  and  to  take  General  Strong  him- 
self as  referee  to  see  that  I  did  it.  They,  how- 
ever, declined  to  make  the  wager.  If  it  had  been, 
accepted,  1  should  have  chosen  the  Salt  Creek  and 
Sangamon  bottoms  for  the  ground,  and  taken  the 
last  week  in  April  for  the  period.  The  birds  are 
then  fat  and  lazy,  and  I  am  confident  that  1  could 
have  done  the  feat.  I  should  not,  as  a  matter 
of  course,  have  bound  myself  to  do  it  within  a 
certain  time,  because  it  is  not  possible  to  say 
when  you  can  fuid  birds  thick  on  the  ground. 
The  snipe  is  somewhat  erratic  in  his  habits,  and 
change  of  weather  causes  them  to  change  their 
ground.  If  I  had  found  snipe  on  that  ground  as 
thick  as  I  have  sometimes  done,  I  believe  I 
should  have  killed  the  one  hundred,  without  a 
miss,  in  one  day.  I  should  not  have  taken  any 
but  fair  chances,  and  I  should  not  have  let  fair 
shots  go  unimproved.  In  order  to  perform  a  feat 
of  this  kind  a  man  must  have  several  essential 
qualifications.  He  must  be  a  dead-shot.  He 
must  have  the  best  of  nerve,  and  never  be 
flurried  in  the  least.  With  such  a  man,  and  a 
gun  of  ten  bore,  charged  with  five  drams  of 
powder   and   an    ounce   and    a   quarter    of    No.    12 


THE    SNIPE    AND    SNIPK-SHOOTINa.  141 

shot,  the  snipe  rising  near  at  hand  will  have 
but  a  very  small  chance  of  getting  away.  But 
as  one  miss  will  lose  the  wager,'  it  is  abso 
lutely  necessary  that  the  shooter  should  know 
when  he  is  holding  his  gun  so  that  it  is  virtu 
ally  certain  he  will  kill.  If  1  had  got  the 
match,  1  should  have  used  no  dog  to  shoot  over, 
but  should  have  walked  the  bottoms,  going  down 
wind,  and  should  have  chirped  the  snipe  up  with 
their  own  cry.  I  have  often  killed  thirty  with 
out  a  miss,  when  shooting  for  no  wager,  and 
taking  every  bird  that  rose  within  fair  distance, 
as  they  got  up  anywhere.  These  things  may  seem 
strange  to  many  sportsmen,  especially  those  who 
are  mostly  conversant  with  places  where  game 
Is  scarce  and,  being  much  disturbed  and  shot  at, 
quite  wild.  But  different  localities  and  very 
diiTerent  circumstances  must  be  allowed  for.  I 
state  nothing  which  is  not  true,  and  nothing  but 
what  I  can  support  by  good  testimony — that  of 
men  who  know  the  ground,  and  are  acquainted 
with  many  of  the  anecdotes  and  feats  I  relate. 
In  general  snipe-shooting  a  man  who  kills  two 
out  of  four  is  accounted  a  good  shot,  and  this 
is  generally  done  by  beating  up-Avind.  Now,  if 
such    a  man    will    try    my    plan    and    beat     down 


143  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

wind,  having  no  dog  save  one  to  retrieve  dead 
birds,  he  will  find  he  can  do  much  better.  He 
will  kill  a  great  many  more  of  the  birds  he 
shoots  at.  I  have  been  snipe-shooting  with  men 
who  called  themselves  good  shots,  and  1  have 
seen  them  miss  full  half  of  the  birds  they 
shot  at.  They  almost  always  fired  too  quick,  while 
the  snipe  was  making  his  darts  here  and  there  before 
going  off  straight  As  a  general  rule,  you  must  be 
willing  and  able  to  do  a  great  deal  of  walking 
when  snipe-shooting,  if  you  would  make  a  large 
bag.  When  I  first  shot  snipe  on  Salt  Creek 
bottoms,  it  was  with  a  muzzle-loader,  and  I  had 
no  horse  and  buggy.  With  a  horse  and  buggy 
to  go  to  the  ground  and  carry  the  bidk  of  the 
ammunition  all  day,  and  with  a  breech-loader,  1 
could  have  killed  three  or  four  hundred  snipe  a 
day  1  could  do  so  now  if  I  could  walk  all  day, 
as  I  could  then ,  but  since  I  was  shot  in  the 
thigh  my  endurance  in  walking,  especially  on  wet, 
slippery  ground,  is  not  as  great  as  it  formerly 
was.  I  could  once  walk  from  dawn  of  day  till 
dark,  only  stopping  to  eat  and  drink,  and  could 
tire  the  best  man  I  ever  had  in  company  in  a 
long  day's  tramp  after  game  It  was  upon  that 
and     upon    knowledge     and    judgment,    lui-gely    do- 


THE    SNIPE    AND    SNIPE-SHOOTING.  143 

rived  from  experience,  as  to  tiie  likeliest  places 
to  find  game,  and  how  it  would  behave  when 
found,  that  I  relied  in  challenging  any  man  in 
the  world  in  field-shooting  in  the  West,  I  counted 
upon  these  things  as  much  as  1  did  upon  my 
ability  as  a  marksman.  My  challenge  stood  three 
years,  and  had  publicity  through  the  sporting  news- 
papers. There  was  plenty  of  talk  about  taking 
it  up,  but  no  one  ever  did  so.  I  hear  from  time 
to  time  about  some  man  who  is  said  by  some 
other  man  to  be  the  best  general  field-shot  in  t\^ 
Western  country.  This  best  general  field-shot  '!& 
commonly  some  man  who  was  never  heard  of 
before  by  me  or  by  anybody  else  outside  of  his 
own  small  neighborhood.  I  believe  1  know  as 
many  of  the  real  dead-shots  of  the  West  as  any 
man  in  that  section,  and  yet  some  one  is  mentioned 
as  the  best  of  all,  of  whom  1  never  heard  before. 
These  foolish  opinions  and  hollow  reputations  are 
commonly  held  and  manufactured  by  those  who 
have  taken  up  the  absurd  notion  that  a  man  who 
is  a  good  trap-shooter  at  pigeons  cannot  be  a  good 
field-shot.  Now,  the  reverse  of  this  is  commonly 
the  case.  The  best  shots  I  have  known  at  pigeons 
liave  ]>eeu  good  shots  in  the  field,  but  many  men 
who  do  well   enough  in  the  field   fiiil  at  pigeons. 


144  FIELD   SHOOTING. 

In  snipe-shooting  In  the  West  along  sloughrf 
or  wet  swales,  in  the  prairie  or  corn-fields,  thcro 
should  be  two  gims  in  company,  one  on  each  side 
of  the  slough  or  swale.  Your  companion  will  com- 
monly be  willing  that  you  shall  take  cither  side 
you  choose,  as  few  men  know  that  it  makes  any 
difference.  But  it  makes  a  very  material  differ- 
ence when  the  wind  is  blowing  across,  or  nearly 
across,  the  slough,  and  if  you  take  the  windward 
side  you  will  have  the  most  shots.  1  have  always 
done  so,  and  have  often  killed  two  or  three  snipe 
to  one  killed  by  my  companion.  The  reason  i.i 
simply  this .  the  snipe  fly  up-windy  and  those  which 
rise  on  the  leeward  side  of  the  slough  cross  it  to 
windward,  while  none  of  those  which  get  up  on 
the  latter  side  fly  to  leeward. 

When  the  snipe  first  come  on  in  the  spring, 
it  is  often  primarily  discovered  by  a  certain  habit 
they  have  of  hovering  in  the  air  of  nights,  and 
making  a  kind  of  humming  noise  with  their  wings, 
as  they  fall  from  a  height.  I  have  often  been  out 
duck-shooting  at  night  at  that  season  of  the  year, 
and,  hearing  this  noise  in  the  air,  have  become  aware 
that  the  snipe  had  arrived  from  the  south.  Before 
they  leave  for  the  north  to  breed  they  often  do 
the  same  thing  by  day,  and  it  is  only  when  in  the 


THE    SNIPE    AND    SNIPE-SHOOTING.  145 

mood  for  this  that  snipe  are  on  the  wing  by  day, 
except  when  put  up.  When  hovering,  the  snipe 
poise  themselves  in  the  air  at  a  considerable  height, 
And,  suddenly  dropping  or  darting  away,  make 
this  noise  with  their  wings ;  then  they  make  another 
hover,  and  then  another  dart.  When  in  this  humor, 
the  snipe  will  not  lie  to  dogs  nor  to  be  walked  up 
within  shot,  and  no  sport  is  to  be  had.  They 
usually  do  it  on  still,  cloudy  days.  I  have  seen 
statements  to  the  effect  that  at  such  times  snipe 
will  alight  on  fences,  stumps,  and  the  topmost 
boughs  of  trees.  I  can  only  say,  touching  these 
statements,  that  my  experience  is  all  the  other 
way.  I  have  been  many  years  in  a  part  of  the 
country  where  the  snipe  are  found  in  amazing 
abundance  every  spring  and  fall ;  I  have  seen  them 
hovering  hundreds  of  times,  when  hundreds  of 
them  were  at  it  in  the  air ;  but  I  never  saw  one 
alight  on  a  tree  or  a  fence  or  on  anything  but 
the  ground.  I  have,  I  think,  been  a  close  observer 
of  the  habits  of  such  game-birds  as  frequented 
Illinois.  My  living  depended  on  it,  in  some  de- 
gree. This  thing,  however,  I  never  saw  a  snipe 
do,  and  I  foel  quite  certain  that  snipe  in  Illinois 
never  do  it.  I  do  not  say  that  the  authors  of  the 
statements  in  question  have  made  wilful  misrepre- 


146  FIELD    SHOOTING, 

sentations,  but  I  do  say  that  they  may  have  been 
mistaken,  and  that  the  birds  which  alighted  on 
trees  while  the  snipe  were  hovering  and  bleating 
were  not  snipe.  It  is  the  easiest  thing  in  the  world 
to  see  snipe  hovering  in  the  spring  in  places  where 
they  abound.  Take  a  day  in  April  when  the  sun 
is  not  bright  and  there  is  a  hazy  atmosphere. 
On  such  a  day  the  snipe  are  at  it  nearly  all  day 
long.  There  will  be  first  one  and  then  another 
going  through  with  this  performance,  and  you 
may  sometimes  hear  three  or  four  at  it  at  once, 
though  not  very  close  together.  I  haA^e  never 
met  a  man  who  had  seen,  or  pretended  to  have 
seen,  a  snipe  alight  on  a  tree  or  fence  at  this  or 
any  other  time. 

Snipe  begin  to  arrive  with  us  in  the  fall,  about 
the  middle  of  October,  but  they  do  not  come 
down  from  the  north  in  large  numbers  so  early 
as  that  date.  At  the  last  of  October  they  are 
commonly  plentiful,  but  are  not  found  in  the  places 
where  they  were  so  abundant  in  the  spring.  In 
the  fall  there  are  not  one-fourth  as  many  in  the 
bottoms  of  Salt  Creek  and  the  Sangamon  as  there 
are  in  April.  Neither  are  they  so  well  distribut- 
ed over  the  country  along  the  sloughs.  In  go- 
ing  south   they  keep    more  to  the  lines  of  the  big 


THE    SNIPE    AND    SNIPE-SHOOTING.  147 

rivers,  and  perhaps  many  of  them  keep  more  to 
the  eastward  in  their  southern  migration  than  they 
do  in  coming  north.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that 
this  last  must  be  the  case,  for  the  birds  are  not 
anything  like  as  numerous  in  the  fall,  when  the 
broods  come,  as  they  were  in  the  spring,  when 
the  snipe  went  north  to  breed.  The  best  fall 
snipe-shooting  with  us  is  along  the  bottoms  of 
the  Mississippi  and  Illinois  Rivers,  and  about  the 
marshes  of  the  great  Winnebago  Swamp.  Here 
the  sportsman  may  have  good  shooting  until  late 
in  the  fall — I  may  say,  in  some  seasons,  until  the 
beginning  of  winter,  for  the  snipe  do  not  leave 
altogether  until  the  ground  is  frozen.  When  that 
happens,  they  go  southwards.  In  Illinois  there  is 
some  marshy  ground  which  the  snipe  do  not  like. 
Most  of  the  land  in  that  State,  being  rich  loam 
or  vegetable  alluvial,  suits  them  well ;  but  in  some 
places  there  is  sand  or  gravel  as  well  as  much 
moisture,  and  neither  of  these  does  the  snipe  seem 
to  like.  I  suppose  the  favorite  food  in  these 
soils  is  scarce,  and  in  all  probability  the  birds  do 
not  like  to  bore  in  gritty  ground.  A  few  may 
be  found  scattered  in  wet  places  on  such  soils, 
but  at  the  same  time  they  lie  in  thousands  along 
the  loamy  bottoms  and  in   the   marshes.     In  these 


148  FIEliD    SHOOTING. 

latter  the  soil  is  usually  vegetable  mould,  the  rich, 
black  deposit  commonly  called  swamp-muck.  In 
this  the  snipe  delights  above  all.  Snipe  afford  a 
vast  amount  of  sport,  but  the  sport  itself  de- 
mands for  its  proper  pursuit  very  considerable 
endurance  and  hardihood.  The  snipe-shooter  must 
expect  to  be  wet  and  to  be  fatigued,  but  he  may 
also  count  upon  making  a  good  bag.  It  is  one 
of  the  most  delicious  birds  that  flies,  certainly 
second  to  none  but  the  upland-plover  and  one  or 
two  sorts  of  duck.  Many  think  it  second  to  none 
whatever,  and  I  doubt  if  it  is  when  in  prime  order 
and  properly  cooked  and  served.  In  places  where 
snipe  are  not  plentiful  it  is  no  doubt  advisable 
to  use  a  dog  to  beat  the  meadows  and  marshes, 
and  point  them ;  but  such  is  not  the  case  where 
I  have  been  accustomed  to  shoot. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

GOLDEN    PLOVER,    CURLEW,    GRAY     PLOVER. 

In  the  West  we  have  in  the  spring  and  fall 
great  numbers  of  the  golden  plover — a  beautiful 
bird,  testing  the  skill  and  patience  of  the  sports- 
man, and  one  that  is  very  delicate  and  rich  eating 
on  the  table.  It  is  stated,  in  some  books  I  have 
looked  into,  that  the  golden  plover  is  essentially 
a  shore  bird.  This  is  ^a  great  error,  if  the  same 
species  is  meant,  for  it  visits  Illinois  and  Iowa, 
and  I  doubt  not  the  country  further  west,  in 
prodigious  numbers.  It  is  called  the  golden 
plover  from  being  speckled  with  yellow  on  the 
back  of  the  head  and  neck.  Its  principal  colors 
are  not  at  all  like  gold ;  and  when  the  birds  are 
seen  in  flocks  on  the  grass-lands  they  love  to 
frequent,  the  golden  spots  cannot  be  distinguished. 
It  is  a  handsome  bird,  graceful  in  shape,  and 
quite  plump.  The  golden  plover  is  not  quite  as 
large  as  a  quail,  but  almost,  when  fat.  The  male 
is  dark  in  color,  with  white  spots  on  the  breast, 
and   narrow    white     streaks    on   the    cheeks.      The 

149 


150  riELD    SHOOTUTa. 

female  is  gray,  and  a  little  smaller  than  the  male. 
This  bird  winters  in  the  south,  principally  upon 
the  great  grassy  ranges  of  Texas  and  Northern 
Mexico.  It  arrives  in  the  prairie  States  about 
ten  days  after  the  snipe,  commonly  about  the 
tenth  of  April;  but  much  depends  on  the 
forwardness  or  backwardness  of  the  spring. 
With  us  there  is  a  variation  of  some  three 
weeks  between  a  very  forward  spring  and  one 
that  is  very  late.  The  golden  plover  forms  one 
of  the  most  numerous  bodies  of  the  great  mi- 
gratory hordes  which  come  north  at  the  end  of 
the  winter.  They  come  in  flocks,  some  of  the 
latter,  on  their  arrival,  being  as  many  as  three 
or  four  hundred  in  number.  At  their  first 
coming  they  are  to  be  found  on  the  burnt  prairies, 
and  soon  after  they  will  be  seen  in  ploughed 
fields  and  on  bare  pastures.  They  also  frequent 
young  wheat  which  is  then  fairly  stai'ted,  and  in 
those  spots  where  the  plant  has  been  drowned 
out  or  killed  by  the  frost  these  birds  are  sure 
to  be  found.  They  like  the  bare  earth  and  the 
close-eaten  pastures,  especially  those  in  certain- 
localities.  From  high  knolls,  where  the  grass 
has  been  eaten  off  short,  they  can  sometimes  be 
hardly  driven  away.     In  sheep  pastures  the  plover 


GOLDEN    PLOVER,    CURLEW,    GRAY    PLOVER.        151 

are  usually  found  at  the  proper  season ;  for  the 
sheep  is  a  close  feeder,  and  likes  to  range  on 
knolls  and  hills.  Along  with  the  golden  plover, 
and  apparently  intimately  associated  with  them 
and  forming  part  of  the  flocks,  comes  the  cur- 
lew, another  handsome  and  delicious  bird.  It  is 
a  little  larger  than  the  golden  plover,  stouter  in 
build,  and  gray  in  color.  In  size  and  shape  the 
curlew  resembles  a  well-grown  woodcock,  but  with 
longer  wings  and  a  thinner  head.  It  has  a  bill 
about  two  inches  long,  curved  in  shape,  and  is  not 
so  high  on  the  leg  as  its  companion,  the  golden 
plover.  They  may  be  easily  distinguished  from 
each  other  when  the  flock  is  on  the  ground,  and 
also  when  in  flight.  The  curlew  affords  as  good 
sport  to  the  shooter  as  the  plover,  and  the  epi- 
cure, who  really  knows  how  good  it  is,  esteems  it 
as  a  dish  dainty  and  delicate  as  the  golden  plover 
itself,  though,  perhaps,  not  quite  so  delicious  as 
the  gray  or  upland  plover,  of  which  I  shall  treat 
further  on.  In  the  curlew  there  is  no  apparent 
difference  between  the  male  and  female.  In  some 
flocks  it  will  be  found  to  be  nearly  as  numerous  as 
the  plover,  while  in  others  the  latter  are  in  a  large 
majority.  When  in  the  spring  ploughing  the  rich 
soil    of   our    prairie   States    is    turned   up,    a   vast 


152  FIELD    8H00TINO. 

number  of  fat  worms  are  thrown  to  the  surface. 
To  pick  up  and  feed  upon  -these,  the  golden 
plover  and  curlew  will  be  seen  following  the 
ploughman  along  the  furrow.  Sometimes  they  fly 
a  little  ahead  of  the  plough  and  team,  some- 
times abreast  of  them,  and  all  the  time  some  are 
wheeling  and  curling  round  and  dropping  in  the 
furrow  which  has  just  been  made.  At  such  times 
these  birds  occasionally  become  so  bold  and 
tame  that  they  come  quite  close  to  the  horses, 
and  I  have  known  some  to  be  knocked  down  and 
killed  by  the  driving-boys  with  their  whips.  As 
a  matter  of  course,  this  is  rather  uncommon ;  but 
their  boldness  and  tameness,  when  ploughing  is 
going  on,  is  in  strong  contrast  to  their  timidity 
and  wariness  on  other  occasions.  They  seem  to 
be  sagacious  enough  to  know  that  where  the  men 
and  teams  are  ploughing  there  can  be  no  shooting, 
and  they  take  advantage  of  that  fact. 

The  best  places  for  shooting  golden  plover  and 
curlew  in  the  earlier  part  of  their  stay  with  us 
are  the  burnt  ground  of  the  prairies,  where  the 
grass  is  beginning  to  quicken,  and  those  close- 
eaten  and  bare  spots  in  the  pastures  of  which  I 
have  made  mention.  It  will  be  best,  when  going 
for  these  birds,  to  take  a  dog  to  bring  in  wounded 


GOLDEN  PLOVER,  CURLEW,  GRAY  PLOVER.   153 

ones.  At  their  first  arrival  the  flocks  of  plover 
and  curlew  are  rather  wild  and  difficult  to  get 
at.  In  their  sojourn  on,  and  long  flights  from, 
the  plains  of  Texas  across  Arkansas,  and  along 
the  Mississippi  River  to  Illinois,  Missouri,  Iowa, 
and  Kansas,  they  have  not  been  accustomed  to 
the  neighborhood  of  men,  and  at  first  they  are 
shy.  But  if  not  shot  at  and  frequently  disturbed, 
they  soon  get  tame,  and  may  be  approached. 
But  some  knowledge  of  their  habits  and  some 
craft  are  always  reqviisite  in  order  to  get  good 
chances  at  these  shifty  and  cunning  birds.  On 
some  days  the  flocks  will  be  much  ou  the  wing, 
flying  from  one  field  to  another,  and  all  going  in 
one  direction,  as  wild  pigeons  do.  At  such  times 
the  shooter  may  take  a  stand  in  the  line  of  flight, 
and  get  fair  shooting  all  day  as  the  flocks  go  over. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  hide  altogether  ;  in  fact,  ii^ 
these  localities — the  burnt  prairies  and  great  pas- 
tures— there  is  seldom  the  means  to  do  so;  but 
it  is  often  desirable  to  lie  down.  Hero  again 
it  must  be  observed  that  it  is  of  no,  use  to  lie 
down  in  clothes  strongly  in  contrast  as  to  color 
with  the  ground  or  grass.  The  golden  plover 
and  curlew  are  low-flying  birds,  and,  when  lying 
down  in  about  the  line  of  flight,  the  shooter  may 


154  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

sometimes  get  a  side  shot  at  a  large,  close  flock, 
and  kill  eight  or  ten  with  his  two  barrels.  Some- 
times the  birds  skim  on  not  above  four  or  five 
feet  from  the  ground.  At  other  times  they  fly 
pretty  high,  but  within  fair  shot;  and  when  one 
barrel  of  the  gun  is  discharged,  the  whole  flock 
will  come  swooping  down  towards  the  earth,  as 
if  the  shot  had  killed  them  all.  In  that  case  it 
is  very  difficult  to  put  in  the  second  barrel  with 
good  effect.  When  they  fly  low  and  present  side 
shots  is  the  most  favorable  time  to  pepper  them. 

At  the  shooting  on  the  pastures  where  the 
birds  have  made  their  temporary  home  it  will 
sometimes  be  found  that  the  golden  plover  and 
curlew  are  not  flying  in  flocks  in  one  direction 
in  such  a  manner  that  you  can  select  a  place  in 
the  line  of  flight.  It  is  then  best  to  go  with  a 
horse  and  buggy.  The  horse  should  be  a  steady 
one,  so  as  to  stand  fire,  and  should  also  be  capable 
of  going  at  a  good  rate,  as  speed  is  one  of 
the  elements  of  success  in  driving  for  plover. 
The  birds  will  be  seen  flying  about  in  various 
directions  over  the  wide  pasture,  and  settled  in 
bunches  on  it.  When  put  on  the  wing  at  such 
times,  they  always  settle  in  a  cluster  nearly  close 
together,  and   put   up    their  head   as   though   taking 


GOLDEN    PLOVER,    CUKLEW,    GUAY    PLOVER.        155 

a  survey  of*  the  ground.  When  they  do  this  at 
a  proper  distance,  the  horse  must  be  put  to  a 
swift  trot  in  such  a  direction  as  you  would  take 
if  going  past  the  plover  on  your  own  sharp 
business.  Judge  the  ground  and  estimate  the 
distance,  so  that  when  you  are  abreast  of  the 
flock  it  will  be  within  shot.  The  birds,  in  such 
a  case,  will  not  rise  until  the  horse  stops,  and 
sometimes,  if  the  shooter  is  quick  and  prompt, 
he  may  get  a  crack  at  them  with  one  barrel  just 
as  they  are  upon  the  point  of  leaving  the  ground, 
and  before  they  are  actually  on  the  wing.  Whea 
a  shot  can  be  got  while  they  are  thus  huddled 
together,  many  may  be  killed.  There  is  no  scruple 
about  shooting  at  these  birds  in  this  manner  among 
sportsmen,  but  few  have  the  art  and  promptness 
to  manage  it.  The  horse  must  be  fast.  He 
must  trot  up  at  a  swift  pace.  You  must  judge 
the  distance  nicely,  for  you  cannot  swerve 
out  of  the  line  and  in  upon  the  birds  with- 
out causing  them  to  take  wing.  Finally,  the  horse 
must  be  one  that  will  obey  a  light  touch  of  the 
rein,  and  stop  rather  suddenly  without  a  jerk. 
When  shooting  plover  on  foot  at  such  times  as 
they  are  acting  after  the  habit  described  above, 
the    sportsman    must    follow    the    same     plan     in 


156  FIELD    SIIOOTINa. 

principle.  Instead  of  driving  up,  as  if  going  hy, 
he  must  run  fast,  as  if  intending  to  pass,  and 
must  not  incline  his  course  in  towards  the  flock. 
These  birds  seem  to  act  as  if  they  reasoned  and 
arrived  at  certain  conclusions.  These  conclusions 
would  he  correct  enough  if  the  craft  of  the  man 
were  not  exerted  to  deceive  them  hy  false  appear- 
ances. When  the  shooter  is  abreast  of  the  flock, 
he  must  come  to  a  stop,  and,  making  a  quarter- 
whirl,  fire  quickly.  He  must  be  quick,  for  the 
moment  he  stops  in  his  forward  course  up  gets 
the  flock.  I  never  knew  a  man  who  would  not 
thus  circumvent  and  shoot  among  a  flock  of  golden 
plover  and  curlew  in  this  manner,  if  he  had  the 
skill  to  achieve  an  opportunity  to  do  so.  I  have 
heard  men  say  they  never  killed  any  plover  except 
on  the  wing.  I  can  readily  believe  it ;  and  will 
add,  very  few  in  any  way.  All  I  can  say  is  that 
I  should  not  like  to  be  the  plover  when  these 
parties  had  a  chance  to  put  in  a  barrel  under  such 
circumstances  as  those  above  described.  The 
horse  and  buggy  is  the  easiest  way  to  go  to  work, 
and  that  itself  is  somewhat  difiicult.  The  man 
who  undertakes  to  run  up  must  be  swift  of  foot, 
good  in  the  wind,  and  so  steady  of  nerve  that  he 
will   not  be   flustered    and    his  hand  will   not  shake 


GOLDEN  PLOVER,  CURLEW,  GRAY  PLOVER.   157 

when  he  stops  suddenly  and  whirls  to  shoot.  When, 
by  a  shot  at  the  flock  on  the  wing,  two  or  three 
of  the  plover  or  curlew  are  crippled,  the  others 
will  circle  round  them,  and  often  offer  chances 
for  capital  shots.  The  breech-loading  gun  is  in- 
valuable in  such  circumstances  as  these.  On  one 
such  occasion  I  remember  having  killed  forty-two 
golden  plover  and  curlew,  all  shot  on  the  wing, 
before  I  picked  up  one  of  them.  Many  a  time  I 
have  killed  as  many  as  fourteen  or  fifteen  without 
lifting  a  bird,  there  being  opportunities  to  load 
and  fire  again  and  again  while  the  plover  swept 
and  circled  over  the  dead  and  wovmded  of  their 
own  flock.  Sometimes  the  flocks  of  golden  plover 
and  curlew  are  so  numerous  in  a  neighborhood,  so 
large  in  extent,  and  fly  in  such  a  way,  that  a  great 
number  may  be  killed  in  a  short  time.  I  remem- 
ber one  such  time  well.  It  is  now  twelve  years 
ago,  and  at  that  period  there  was  a  great  deal  of 
unbroken  prairie  in  the  neighborhood  of  Elkhart. 
I  smarted  out  aft;er  dinner  from  that  place,  and 
drove  two  miles  into  the  prairie.  It  had  just  been 
burned  over,  and  large  flocks  of  plover  a*id  curlew 
were  coming  in  one  after  the  other.  That  after- 
noon I  killed  two  hundred  and  sixty-four  plover 
and   curlew,  and   crot  back  to   Elkhart  at  sundown. 


158  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

I  got  a  few  sitting  shots  on  that  occasion,  but  the 
vast  majority  of  the  birds  were  killed  on  the 
wing,  while  circling  round  their  wounded  com- 
panions. This  was  done  with  a  muzzle-loader. 
With  a  good  breech-loader  and  plenty  of  cart- 
ridges I  believe  I  could  have  killed  five  hundred 
birds  that  afternoon.  Much  of  the  prairie  about 
there,  which  was  then  unbroken,  has  been  broken 
up,  and  is  now  wheat,  corn,  and  oat  land.  The 
golden  plover  and  curlew  are  not  as  numerous  in 
that  neighborhood  now  as  they  were  then.  Still, 
there  are  plenty  of  them  in  the  right  season  of  the 
year.  Of  late  years  I  have  generally  killed  from 
fifty  to  two  hundred  plover  and  curlew  a  day 
v.hcn  out  after  them  especially.  This  means 
golden  plover,  as  I  never  shoot  the  gray  or  grass 
plover  in  the  spring,  for  a  reason  1  shall  presently 
advance.  My  bag  has  seldom  been  less  than  fifty, 
and  not  often  as  high  as  two  hundred,  and  I  have 
commonly  shot  right  along  during  the  season,  pre- 
ferring to  do  so  rather  than  to  go  after  snipe 
to  the  Sangamon  and  Salt  Creek  bottoms.  The 
golden  plpver  and  curlew  are  highly  esteemed  by 
the  high-livers  of  the  cities.  There  is  a  constant 
demand  for  them  at  Chicago,  and  good  prices  are 
obtained  when  they  first  come  in. 


GOLDEN    PLOVER,    CUKLEW,    GRAY    PLOVER.        159 

Golden  plover  and  curlew  may  be  found  almost 
anywhere  in  the  prairie  States  in  April.  As  I 
stated  briefly  in  the  chapters  on  pinnated  grouse, 
I  once  went  on  a  three  months'  shooting-excursioii 
to  Christian  County,  Illinois,  starting  about  the 
first  of  February.  My  shooting  companion  was 
a  hunter  named  Joe  Phillips,  and  we  had  for 
camp-keeper  a  lively,  jovial  fellow  named  Beu 
Powell.  The  latter  has  acted  as  camp-keeper  for 
me  many  years.  We  pitched  our  tent  about 
a  couple  of  miles  from  the  town  of  Assumption, 
and  the  report  was  soon  spread  in  that  primitive 
Western  village  that  we  were  a  band  of  gipsies. 
One  evening  a  bevy  of  brown,  blushing  girls  ar- 
rived at  the  camp  and  demanded  information  as 
to  where  the  gipsy  women  were.  They  wanted 
to  have  their  fortunes  told,  and  could  hardly  be 
persuaded  that  we  were  simply  hunters  and  of 
the  same  race  of  people  as  themselves.  After- 
wards some  of  the  men  of  the  village  came,  and, 
in  conversation  with  Powell  during  the  absence 
of  Phillips  and  myself,  boasted  of  a  great  shot 
they  had  among  them.  The  people  of  the  region 
were  almost  all  agriculturists  and  herdsmen,  and 
as  for  shooting  game  on  the  wing,  they  hardly 
knew   what    it   was.     The   man,   who    had    settled 


160  FIELD   SHOOTING. 

among  them  from  a  distance,  professed  himself  a 
great  pigeon-shot.  Powell  listened  to  the  wonders 
this  man  could  perform,  and  then  enquired  whether 
they  would  like  to  back  him  to  shoot  pigeons  against 
one  of  the  field-shooters  of  our  party.  They  said 
they  would,  and  the  preliminaries  of  a  match 
were  arranged,  in  which  Powell  was  to  put  up 
our  team  of  ponies  and  wagon  against  a  hundred 
dollars  cash  on  the  other  side.  But  the  match 
was  not  confirmed;  for  while  the  discussion  was 
still  going  on  Phillips  and  I  returned  to  camp 
from  our  hunt,  and  this  broke  it  off".  One  of  the 
Assumption  men  had  seen  me  before  somewhere, 
and  had  heard  my  shooting  well  spoken  of.  He 
caused  his  townsmen  to  draw  back.  I  have  no 
idea  that  the  man  they  spoke  of  was  much  of  a 
shot.  He  very  likely  could  not  kill  sixty  birds 
in  a  hundred  at  eighteen  yards  rise. 

During  the  time  we  shot  in  Christian  County 
Phillips  and  1  kept  separate  accounts  of  the  game 
we  killed.  In  the  three  months  I  killed  with  my 
own  gun  over  six  thousand  head  of  game-birds. 
They  included  pinnated  grouse,  brant,  geese,  ducks, 
cranes,  golden  plover  and  curlew,  snipe,  and  a  few 
sand-snipe.  The  largest  number  were  golden  plo- 
ver and  curlew,  and  the  next  on  the  list  was  snipe. 


GOLDEN    PLOVKR,    CURLEW,    GRAY    PLOVER.        161 

On  that  occasion,  in  one  afternoon,  I  killed  sev- 
enty-nine, ducks,  brant,  and  Canada  geese;  and 
Phillips  made  a  good  bag  the  same  day.  It 
sometimes  falls  out  so  that  waterfowl  or  other 
birds  of  pursuit  are  so  numerous  and  act  in  such 
a  way  that  a  very  large  number  may  be  killed. 
These  occasions  do  not  happen,  however,  very 
often. 

After  the  golden  plover  and  curlew  have  re- 
mained with  us  some  time  in  the  spring,  they  are 
no  longer  seen  in  large  flocks,  but  are  found 
scattered  and  distributed  over  the  country  in 
small  companies  numbering  from  three  or  four  to 
twelve.  Early  in  the  morning  these  companies 
are  found  on  the  bare  pastures.  By  eight  or 
nine  in  the  morning  they  will  have  gone  to  the 
arable  land,  and  are  following  the  plough  in  the 
furrow.  After  they  have  partially  dispersed  in 
this  manner  they  fly  very  fast,  and  then  they  are 
exceedingly  good  practice  for  the  skilful  shooter. 
The  man  who  can  make  nearly  certain  of  his 
single  plover,  flying  swift,  as  they  do,  after  the 
large  flocks  have  broken  up  and  scattered,  is  a 
good  man  at  any  kind  of  shooting.  I  prefer  it 
to  any  other  kind  of  practice.  Before  shooting 
against   Abraham    Kleinman   for   the    championship 


1G2  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

badge  of  the  United  States,  at  one  hundred 
pigeons  each,  I  took  two  weeks'  practice  at  plo- 
ver. They  were  then  scattered,  and  1  shot  at  none 
but  single  birds.  The  practice  was  of  much  ser- 
vice, as  the  plover  flew  very  swift  and  did  not 
present  a  large  mark.  From  what  I  could  do 
with  them  in  the  field  I  was  satisfied  I  should 
win  the  match,  and  it  so  turned  out.  I  killed 
the  whole  of  the  hundred  pigeons  in  the  match ; 
ninety-three  of  them  were  scored  to  me,  and  the 
other  seven  fell  dead  out  of  bounds.  From  the 
time  the  great  flocks  of  plover  scatter,  which  is 
sometimes  as  early  as  the  twentieth  of  April, 
practice  at  single,  fast-flying  birds,  such  as  I  have 
mentioned,  may  be  had  until  they  go  north  to 
their  breeding-grounds  in  the  higher  latitudes. 

We  now  come  to  the  upland  or  highland, 
grass,  gray,  or  whistling  plover,  which,  according 
to  scientific  naturalists,  is  no  plover  at  all,  strictly 
epeaking,  but  a  bird  of  similar  habits  and  ap- 
pearance, called  Bartram's  tatler.  As  it  is  known 
among  sportsmen  as  a  plover  only,  I  shall  call 
it  one.  This  bird  is  a  little  larger  than  the 
golden  plover,  and  a  little  longer  in  the  leg;  it 
is  also  more  upright  and  has  a  longer  neck  than 
the    other.       Its    color     is     gray.       It    is     a    very 


GOLDEN    PLOVER,    CURLEW,    GRAY    PLOVER.        103 

handsome  bird,  and  neither  the  woods,  the  fields, 
nor  the  waters  of  the  American  continent  supply 
a  more  delicious  repast  than  is  afforded  by  a 
dish  of  these  rich  and  delicate  birds.  They 
winter  upon  the  great  plains  of  Mexico  and 
Texas,  upon  both  banks  of  the  Rio  Grande,  and 
are  in  large  numbers,  though  not  so  numerous 
as  the  golden  plover  and  curlew.  The  upland 
plover  is  the  last  of  the  spring  migrants  from  the 
south,  and  when  it  is  seen  with  us  we  may 
safely  predict  that  there  will  be  no  more  cold 
weather.  Its  arrival  in  the  prairie  States  is 
generally  ten  days  later  than  that  of  the  first 
of  the  united  flocks  of  golden  plover  and  cur- 
lew. While  it  lingers  longer  in  the  south  than 
they,  there  is  a  corresponding  difference  in  the 
limits  of  its  visits  to  the  north.  They  go  on 
to  higher  latitudes  to  breed,  after  having  stayed 
about  a  month  with  us.  The  upland  plover 
breeds  with  us,  though  many,  no  doubt,  go  far 
north  of  Illinois  to  do  so.  Indeed,  it  is  found 
in  the  summer  in  Minnesota,  and  Manitoba,  in  the 
British  Territory.  The  upland  plover  makes  a  soft, 
whistling  noise  when  put  up,  reminding  one  of  Burns's 

"  Full-toned  plover  gray, 
Wild  whistliug  o'er  the  hill." 


164;  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

It  is  a  dodging,  cunning  bird,  but,  when  it 
first  arrives  in  the  latter  part  of  April,  it  is 
very  tame  and  very  easily  shot.  I  never  shoot  it 
at  that  season,  and  no  one  ought  to  do  so;  for 
the  birds  are  ready  to  pair  as  soon  as  they 
reach  their  breeding-grounds  on  our  prairies.  It 
builds  in  the  grass  of  the  prairie  pastures,  on 
the  ground,  its  nest  being  made  of  dead  grass,  and 
commonly  under  a  tussock.  The  eggs  are  a  pale, 
bluish  green,  freckled  with  brown,  and  I  do  not 
think  the  hen  usually  lays  more  than  three.  I 
have  a  sort  of  remembrance  that  I  have  seen  nests 
with  four  eggs  in  them,  but  I  made  no  notes  of 
them  at  the  time,  and  am  not  quite  certain.  The 
young  birds  grow  fast,  and  get  fat  on  abun- 
dance of  grasshoppers  and  other  insects  which 
swarm  in  the  hot  months  with  us.  About  the 
first  of  September  the  upland  plover,  young  and 
old,  are  fine,  plump  birds,  and  are  far  more  diffi- 
cult to  shoot  than  the  breeding-birds  were  when 
they  reached  the  Western  States  in  the  spring. 
In  the  fall  they  are  wild  and  wary,  full  of  craft 
and  cunning,  and  hardly  to  be  approached  by  a 
man  on  foot,  especially  if  he  has  a  gun. 
Almost  the  only  way  to  get  near  enough  to  them 
to    shoot    is    by    means   of    a    horse    and    buggy. 


GOLDEN    PLOVER,    CURLEW,    GRAY    PLOVER.        105 

They  are  to  be  found  in  scattered  groups,  we 
may  say  thin  flocks,  on  pastures  and  meadows 
that  have  been  mowed.  The  upland  plover  in  its 
flight  takes  much  more  open  order  than  the 
golden  plover  and  cvcrlew,  though  still  keeping  a 
sort  of  companionship,  and  it  does  not  settle  in 
clusters,  as  is  the  habit  of  those  birds.  They 
run,  scattering  about  over  the  pastures  and  mea- 
dows, catching  grasshoppers  and  such  like  insects, 
and,  when  put  up,  they  fly  off  swift,  in  open  or- 
der, well  spread  out.  The  sportsman  who  is 
after  them  with  the  horse  and  buggy  must  pursue 
the  same  tactics  as  those  mentioned  in  reference  to 
shooting  golden  plover  and  curlew  in  the  spring. 
The  horse  must  go  fast,  and  the  man  must  shoot 
the  moment  he  stops.  I  never  try  to  step  to 
the  ground,  but  shoot  from  the  buggy.  It  is 
best  to  have  a  companion  when  after  these  wild 
and  vrarj  birds.  While  one  men  lies  down  in  a 
selected  spot,  the  other  drives  round  to  the  far 
side  of  the  birds,  and  gets  his  shot  if  he  can. 
Whether  he  does  or  not,  the  plover  will  be  apt 
to  fly  over  the  man  lying  down.  This  is  tho 
only  system  which  promises  any  success  for  men 
who  are  after  upland  plover  on  foot  in  the  fall 
of  the   year.     It   is  of  no  use   chasing  after   them 


166  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

over   the   meadows   and   pastures,  in   hopes   to  get 
near   enough   for   a   shot. 

Sand-snipe  and  grass  snipe  (so-called  in  the 
West)  are  not  snipe,  but  some  sorts  of  tatlers 
or  sand-pipers.  They  resemble  the  plover,  but 
are  smaller,  being  only  about  the  size  of  a  true 
snipe.  The  sand-snipe  has  a  whitish  breast ;  the 
grass-snipe  is  a  gray  bird.  They  come  about  the 
same  time  as  golden  plover  and  curlew,  and  in 
pretty  large  flocks.  In  dry  seasons  these  flocks 
appear  to  unite,  two  or  three  making  but  one, 
and  then  they  are  in  very  large  numbers  together. 
They  are  nice,  plump  birds,  as  good  to  eat  as 
plover,  and  easy  to  get  at.  However,  good  as  they 
are,  few  people  shoot  them,  and  it  is  easy  enough 
to  get  within  range  of  a  flock  of  them.  They 
frequent  marshy  ground,  such  as  the  true  snipe 
likes.  Unlike  the  latter,  however,  they  fly  in 
flocks,  and  settle  down,  clustered  together,  on  the 
muddy  edges  of  sloughs  and  little  water-holes, 
which  they  see  while  crossing  the  prairie  on  the 
wing.  Once,  when  I  was  out  shooting  golden  plo- 
ver and  curlew,  1  saw  a  great  flock  of  these 
smaller  birds  in  a  marshy  spot  near  a  little  pond. 
1  thought  they  were  plover,  but  as  I  neared  them 
the    flock  rose,  and    then    1    saw  it  was  a  vast  col- 


GOLDEN  PLOVER,  CUKLEW,  GKAY  PLOVER.    167 

lection  of  sand-snipe.  It  was  a  dry  season,  and, 
as  is  then  their  wont,  they  had  gathered  into  great 
flocks.  They  flew  around,  and  finally  settled  again. 
I  do  not  usually  trouble  myself  with  this  bird, 
for  nobody  seems  to  care  about  it,  although  it  is 
as  good  eating  as  the  snipe  itself,  for  all  the  long 
bill  of  the  latter ;  but  as  I  had  come  down  to 
them,  1  concluded  to  take  a  crack  at  the  flock. 
It  was  certainly  as  much  as  five  hundred  in  num- 
ber. So  I  let  fly  with  one  barrel  charged  with 
No.  10,  and,,  making  a  raking  shot  over  the  gromid, 
killed  fifty-four.  If  game  were  scarce  with  us,  as 
it  is  in  some  parts,  sand-snipe  and  grass-snipe 
would  be  held  in  esteem. 


CHAPTEE  X. 

WILD    DUCKS    AND   WESTERN    DUCK-SHOOTING. 

The  best  of  the  ducks  which  are  found  in  the 
Western  States  are  Canvas-backs,  Redheads,  Mal- 
lards, Pintails,  Blue-beils,  Blue  and  Green  winged 
Teal,  Widgeon,  and  Black  Ducks.  There  are  also 
Wood-ducks,  which,  though  most  beautiful  in  plu- 
mage, are  not  very  fine  on  the  table.  "  Some  are, 
however,  shot  for  the  sake  of  their  feathers,  which 
are  exported  to  England,  where  the  brilliant  hues 
of  part  of  their  plumage  are  used  in  the  manu- 
facture of  artificial  flies  for  salmon  and  trout  fish- 
ing. And  besides  the  species  mentioned  above, 
there  are  two  or  three  ducks  of  other  sorts,  which, 
being  scarce  and  comparatively  worthless,  are  of 
no  account  to  the  sportsman,  aaid  need  not  be 
further  alluded  to  in  this  work.  The  wood-duck 
breeds  in  Illinois  and  the  other  Western  States 
along  the  rrvers  ami  creeks,  and  always  in  or  on 
the  edge  of  timber.  It  is  rather  numerous  along^ 
the  Sangamon  and  the  shores  of  Salt  Creek.  They 
make    their   nests   in  hollows  of  trees,  and  are  the 

16» 


WILD    DUCKS    AND    WESTERN    DUCK-SHOOTING.    169 

only  kind  of  ducks  which,  to  my  knowledge,  ever 
alight  in  trees.  It  is  very  beautiful,  having  gor- 
geous plumage,  with  a  topknot  on  the  head.  The 
female  hatches  from  eight  to  twelve  young  in  a 
brood,  and  carries  them  off  one  by  one  to  the 
water.  The  wood-duck  is  short,  small,  and  stout, 
weighing  about  a  pound  and  a  half,  and  is  not 
much  prized  for  the  table.  It  is  very  swift  in 
flight,  and  can  go  through  timber  like  a  wild  pigeon 
or  a  ruffed  grouse. 

Of  the  ducks  to  be  found  with  us,  the  most 
numerous,  and  perhaps  the  best,  is  the  mallard. 
I  consider  it  quite  equal  to  the  canvas-back  in 
juiciness  and  flavor,  and  also  to  the  redhead  or 
pochard.  Jt  is  true  that  so  much  has  been  writ- 
ten and  said  about  the  unrivalled  excellence  of  the 
canvas-back  that  it  may  seem  heretical  to  main- 
tain that  the  mallard  is  as  good.  Such,  however, 
is  my  own  conviction;  and  though  some  say  that 
the  canvas-backs  of  the  West  have  not  the  pecu- 
liar flavor  of  those  procured  on  the  sea-coast  in 
shallow  waters,  others,  whose  experience  of  them 
in  both  localities  is  large,  say  this  is  an  error, 
arising  from  prejudice  and  imagination.  The  edi- 
tor of  this  work  states  some  facts  which  r^o  to 
fortify  juc    in    my    opinion.       He    says    that    when 


170  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

Senator  Pugh  was  in  Washington,  representing  the 
State  of  Ohio,  this  question  of  the  superiority  of 
the  canvas-backs  of  the  East  over  those  which 
had  fed  and  got  fat  on  the  wild  rice  and  wild 
celery  of  the  West  was  mooted  at  a  supper  in 
which  canvas-backs  were  the  chief  dish.  All  those 
practically  unacquainted  with  the  Western  ducks 
laughed  at  the  notion  that  they  could  compare  in 
excellence  with  those  of  Maryland.  Mr.  Pugh  was 
rather  deaf,  as  he  always  has  been,  but  he  seems 
to  have  heard  the  observations  in  question,  though 
he  did  not  contradict  them  then.  He  wrote, 
however,  to  a  friend  of  his,  then  collector  at  San- 
dusky, on  the  shallow  bay  of  that  name  in  Lake 
Erie,  a  noted  resort  for  Western  wild  fowl,  re- 
questing him  to  send  to  Washington  a  few  couple 
of  fat  canvas-backs.  In  due  time  they  arrived, 
and  the  gentlemen  of  the  party  who  had  met 
before  were  invited  by  the  senator  to  supper. 
He  had  procured  some  fine  canvas-backs  from 
Baltimore,  and  he  took  good  care  his  guests 
should  know  it.  But  before  the  ducks  were  cooked 
those  from  Ohio  were  substituted  for  those  of 
the  Patapsco.  They  were  served  up,  eaten  with 
great  relish,  and  the  usual  pagans  of  praise,  and 
not   a    man     at     the    ta])le    except    Senator    Pugh 


WILD    DUCKS    AND    WESTERN    DUCK-SHOOTING.      ]71 

knew  that  they  had  feasted  on  Western  ducks 
until  told  so  the  next  day.  Even  then  they  were 
hardly  convinced.  Another  matter  in  this  connec- 
tion is  that  the  very  able  and  w-ell-informed 
author,  Dr.  Sharpless,  of  Philadelphia,  stated  that 
he  could  never  distinguish  much  difTerence  in 
flavor  between  canvas-backs  and  redheads,  and 
that  many  of  the  latter  were  sold  as  canvas-backs 
and  eaten  as  such  by  those  who  professed  to  know 
all  about  the  divine  flavor.  The  editor  of  this 
work  has  often  received  canvas-back  ducks  from 
Mr.  Saliagnac,  of  Philadelphia,  who  rents  shootings 
on  the  coast.  The  canvas-backs  sent  to  him  by 
that  gentleman  were  in  truth  very  excellent,  but 
neither  he  nor  any  one  else  who  partook  of  them 
thought  them  superior  to  some  mallards  which  had 
been  killed  in  a  wheat-stubble  in  Iowa,  and  were 
sent  on  as  a  present  by  Mr.  James  Bruce,  of 
Keokuk,  now  of  St.  Louis,  Missouri.  Moreover, 
Mr.  Saliagnac  himself,  great  sportsman  and  en- 
thusiastic admirer  of  canvas-backs  as  he  is,  told 
the  editor  that  his  breed  of  tame  ducks,  the 
large,  white  upland  M'uscovy,  were  just  about  as 
fine  eating  as  canvas-backs  when  fattened  and  killed 
at  the  right  time,  and  cooked  in  the  same  way. 
Of  course   all   this   will    be    hooted    at    by   those 


172  KIKLD    SHOOTING. 

who  have  made  the  "wonderful,  exquisite,  unparal- 
leled excellence  of  the  canvas-back  a  matter  of 
superstition.  It  is  indeed  as  excellent  as  any 
duck,  and  for  luscious  richness  the  ducks  at  least 
equal  any  other  description  of  bird.  The  canvas- 
back  is  a  great  deal  better  in  proportion  to  the 
praises  heaped  upon  it  than  the  brook-trout  is ; 
for  vrhatever  sport  they  may  give  to  the  angler, 
the  "speckled  beauties"  are  nothing  like  as  good 
to  eat  as  many  other  fish  not  thought  much  of. 
Fashion,  however,  goes  a  great  way  in  these  mat- 
ters, and  few  are  as  candid  as  the  Irishman,  who, 
having  gone  some  distance  in  a  sedan-chair  with- 
out a  seat,  replied,  in  answer  to  the  question 
how  he  liked  it : 

"  Faith,  but  for  the  name  of  the  thing  I  might 
as  well  have  walked  ! " 

The  mallards  winter  in  the  south  for  the  most 
part,  though  a  few  remain  on  the  Sangamon  all 
the  cold  season,  unless  the  weather  is  very  in- 
tense and  the  frost  so  long  continued  and  rigid 
as  to  freeze  up  all  the  springy  pools  of  that 
river.  When  they  come  north  in  the  spring,  a 
few  remain  with  us  and  make  their  nests  in  the 
Winnebago  Swamp  and  the  bottoms  of  the  San- 
gamon  River  and  Salt   Creek.     But  the  vast  ma- 


WILD    DUCKS    AND    WESTERN    DUCK-SHOOTING.      173 

jority,  after  remaining  with  us  some  time,  go 
still  further  north  to  breed  and  rear  their  young. 
Their  northern  limit  is  in  a  very  high  latitude. 
The  mallard  is  the  most  beautiful  of  all  ducks, 
except  the  wood-duck,  and  naturalists  are  agreed 
that  the  common  breeds  of  domesticated  ducks 
have  sprung  from  the  former.  It  crosses  readily 
enough  with  tame  ducks,  to  my  knowledge,  and 
the  produce  of  the  cross  are  prolific,  though  wild 
and  apt  to  go  away  with  the  wild  mallards  in 
the  fall.  The  mallards  with  us  make  their 
nests  about  the  middle  of  April  in  an  average 
season.  When  out  snipe-shooting  about  the  1st 
of  May,  I  have  found  mallards'  nests  already 
containing  seven  or  eight  eggs.  The  nests  are 
built  near  the  water  in  some  secluded  marsh  or 
lonely  swamp,  on  tussocks  of  grass  near  the  edges 
of  sloughs,  and  in  wet  river-bottoms.  And  some- 
times I  have  found  the  nest  of  the  mallard  on  the 
margin  of  a  pond  in  the  prairie  or  the  pasture 
fields.  The  nest  is  nicely  made  of  dry  grass 
and  sedge,  and  by  the  time  the  female  is  ready 
to  sit  it  is  lined  with  soft,  loose  feathers,  just 
as  the  nest  of  the  tame  duck  is.  The  eggs  are 
from  twelve  to  sixteen  in  number,  in  color  of 
a  greenish   blue   cast,   and   very   much   like    those 


174  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

of  the  tame  ducks  which  lay  greenish  blue  eggs. 
The  eggs  of  some  sorts  of  tame  ducks  are  a 
shining  white,  as  if  glazed.  The  broods  of  young 
mallards,  the  flappers,  are  first  seen  about  the 
10th  of  June.  There  are  commonly  from  eight  to 
twelve  in  a  brood.  The  little  things  are  active 
and  cunning  from  the  first.  If  they  are  pursued, 
they  dart  swiftly  under  water,  and,  swimming 
beneath  to  the  bank,  just  put  their  bills  above 
the  surface  and  lie  quiet.  When  they  are  some- 
what bigger,  they  go  out  upon  the  margins  of 
the  streams  and  ponds,  and  hide  in  the  grass. 
About  the  middle  of  October  the  young  mal- 
lards are  full  grown  and  well  feathered  so  as  to 
be  able  to  fly  fast  and  far.  The  drake  is  a 
little  larger  than  the  duck,  and  a  large  one  will 
weigh  nearly  three  pounds.  Widgeon  and  the 
two  kinds  of  teal  also  breed  with  us  to  some 
extent,  but  their  nests  are  seldom  found.  In  the 
Winnebago  Swamp  there  are  a  few  nests  of  the 
broadbill  or  spoonbill.  The  pintail  does  not  breed 
with  us,  and  1  believe  not  on  this  side  of  the 
arctic  regions. 

If  the  winter  is  broken,  the  ducks  begin  to 
arrive  from  the  south  by  the  middle  of  Feb- 
ruary,  and  in   an   early  spring  they  are   found   in 


WILD    DUCKS    AND    WESTERN    DUCK-SIIOOTING.     175 

thousands  by  the  1st  of  March.  When  they  first 
come  to  the  prairie  States  in  the  spring,  they 
are  in  poor  condition,  but  after  feeding  about  tho 
corn-fields  a  short  time  they  become  plump  and 
fat.  Ducks,  wild  and  tame  alike,  are  great  feed- 
ers, and  will  be  found  eating  in  the  evening 
long  after  other  birds  have  gone  to  roost.  The 
mallards  and  pintails  fly  from  their  roosting- 
places  on  the  water  to  the  fields  at  early  morn- 
ing, and  on  wet,  cloudy  days  remain  in  the 
corn-fields  all  day.  They  are  so  numerous  that 
the  fields  appear  at  such  times  to  have  ducks 
scattered  all  over  them.  On  clear  days  they  do 
not  remain  in  the  fields  on  the  feed  all  day, 
but  return  to  their  haunts  on  the  water  about 
nine  or  ten  o'clock.  In  the  afternoon  they  fly 
to  the  corn-fields  again  about  three  or  four  o'clock, 
when  they  first  come  from  the  south ;  but  after 
being  with  us  some  time  their  evening  flight  to 
the  fields  is  not  made  till  sundown,  and  some- 
times not  till  it  is  nearly  dark.  The  mallards  are 
then  paired  off,  but  not  so  the  pintails.  When 
not  in  the  corn-fields,  both  kinds  are  about  rivers 
and  ponds. 

The    blue-winged    teal     and    the    green-winged, 
with   the   widgeon,   use    more    about   sloughs    and 


176  FIELD    SHOOTING, 

streams.  They  do  not  come  into  the  corn-fields 
much,  and  are  shot  along  rivers  and  creeks. 
I  have,  however,  seen  these  small  ducks  flying  to 
the  corn-fields  when  it  was  nearly  dark.  At  times, 
when  ponds  in  corn-fields  are  enlarged  by  rains, 
and  the  low  places  in  the  fields  are  overflowed, 
many  teal  resort  to  them.  From  such  places,  at 
break  of  day,  I  have  often  put  up  hundreds  of 
teal  and  hundreds  of  other  kinds  of  ducks.  A 
great  many  teal  and.  small  ducks,  such  as  blue- 
bills,  are  shot  on  the  Calumet  River,  and  Abe 
Kleinman  gets  his  full  share  of  them.  Mallards, 
canvas-backs,  and  red-heads  are  sometimes  shot 
there  too,  but  the  smaller  ducks  are  those  which 
commonly  prevail.  The  spring  ducks  remain  with 
us  from  four  to  five  weeks,  but  after  the  great 
multitudes  have  gone  north  some  straggling 
parties  still  remain.  Mallards  pair  by  the  middle 
of  March,  and  the  teal  next.  The  other  kinds 
of  ducks  are  later,  and  1  do  not  think  they  have 
paired  up  to  the  time  of  their  leaving  our  lati- 
tudes for  the  higher  ones  in  which  they  breed 
in  most  cases. 

About  the  last  of  September  the  ducks  begin 
to  arrive  from  their  breeding-grounds  in  the  far 
north.     Some  are  seen   before    that  time,  but  they 


WILD    DUCKS   AND   WESTERN    DUCK-SHOOTING.      1T7 

are  those  which  have  stopped  with  us  to  breed, 
and  the  broods  they  have  produced.  There  is  no 
great  abundance  from  the  arrivals  until  pretty 
sharp  frosts  have  set  in,  which  is  generally  about 
the  middle  of  October,  but  some  seasons  not  till 
later.  Still  the  main  body  seems  to  hold  off, 
and  it  is  not  until  cold  weather  has  set  in 
fairly  that  the  ducks  come  in  vast  numbers.  Then 
they  may  be  heard  all  night  flying  to  the  south- 
ward in  large  flocks,  and  a  great  many  alight 
and  tarry  by  the  way.  Sometimes  the  whole 
country  appears  to  swarm  with  them.  In  places 
on  the  prairies  and  the  great  pastures  where 
corn  in  the  ear  is  dumped  down  by  wagon- 
loads  to  feed  bullocks,  I  have  seen  acres 
thickly  covered  with  Canada  geese,  brant  geese, 
mallards,  and  pintails.  As  a  rule,  shooting  is  not 
allowed  in  such  places,  because  it  scares  the 
cattle ;  but  the  owners  and  herdsmen  have  somcr 
times  shifted  their  droves  to  another  place,  in 
order  to  give  me  a  chance  to  shoot  the  wild 
fowl  congregated  thereabouts.  Then  I  have  had 
grand   spots. 

The  fall  ducks  remain  until  the  country  is 
mostly  frozen  up ;  and  in  an  open  fall  they  ares 
with    us   in  large  numbers  until  nearly  Christmas. 


178  FIELD   SHOOTING. 

Some  mallards  stay  on  the  Sangamon  all  the 
winter,  unless  the  season  happens  to  be  particu- 
larly severe  and  the  cold  very  steady  and  in- 
tense. When  the  fall  ducks  arrive,  they  are  in 
fine  condition,  having  fed  on  the  wild  rice  of 
the  nprth,  and  the  young  mallards  are  delicious 
eating  at  that  time.  I  know  of  nothing  better, 
and   of  hardly  anything   else   as  good. 

Duck-shooting  is  often  rough,  wet  work. 
About  the  rivers  and  sloughs  it  is  necessary  to 
be  more  or  less  in  the  water,  unless  the  shooter 
has  a  boat ;  besides  which,  the  ducks  secured  are 
necessarily  wet  and  draggled.  Shooting  ducks  in 
the  corn-fields,  as  they  come  to  feed,  is  differ- 
ent. The  shooter  can  usually  manage  to  keep 
tolerably  dry,  and  the  ducks  shot  -fall  on  the 
ground  instead  of  in  the  water.  But  even  then 
it  requires  considerable  fortitude  and  much  skill 
and  patience.  People  who  want  to  sit  by  the 
fire  on  cold,  wet  days,  when  the  wind  blows 
strong  and  keen,  are  not  cut  out  for  duck- 
shooters.  When  I  go  out  for  duck-shooting  on 
their  feeding-grounds,  I  first  ascertain  by  observa- 
tion the  fields  they  are  flying  to  and  from,  and 
the  places  they  cross  the  bounds  at.  Ducks  are 
like  sheep  in  some  respects.     Where  one  flock  flies 


WILD    DUCKS    AND    WESTERN    DUCK-SHOOTING.      179 

the  others  follow,  keeping  the  same  general  route, 
unless  they  see  something  to  make  them  swerve 
from  it.  1  then  select  the  best  spot  I  can  find  to 
lie  down  in — that  is,  the  one  most  screened  from  ob- 
servation and  beneath  the  line  of  flight.  A  rub- 
ber blanlcet  being  spread,  down  I  go  on  my  back,  in 
clothes  the  color  of  the  grass  or  ground  I  lie  on. 
This  is  an  essential  point.  It  is  useless  to  expect 
the  ducks  to  continue  their  flight  over  an  object 
in  dark  clothes  lying  upon  faded  grass,  or  over  a 
man  in  light  clothes  lying  upon  black  ground.  My 
shooting  suit  is  corduroy,  with  a  cap  of  the  same ; 
and  as  it  is  about  the  color  of  the  grass,  corn- 
stalks, and  weeds  Aate  in  the  fall,  it  answers  very 
well.  If  the  shooter  has  no  corduroy  clothes,  let 
him  wear  a  linen  duster  over  his  dark  clothes. 
The  latter  may  do  very  well  for  a  patch  of  black 
ground  in  a  corn-field,  or  a  dark  ground  at  a 
orossing-place ;  but  usually  corduroy  can  be  made 
to  suit  anywhere  by  a  little  care  in  selection, 
because  dead  grass  and  weeds  nearly  everywhere 
prevail.  A  man  in  dark  clothes  by  a  pond  in 
the  prairie  would  not  get  a  duck  in  a  day,  no 
matter  how  numerous  they  might  be  in  the 
neighboihood.  Uucks  are  wary  birds  and  very 
fer-si'ihied.     But   some   men  seem    to  believe   that 


180  FIELD   SHOOTING. 

the  ducks  are  as  foolish  and  as  thoughtless  as 
themselves.  They  post  themselves  in  places 
where  the  color  of  their  clothes  is  in  strong 
contrast  with  everything  else  around ;  and  when 
the  ducks  sheer  off  wide  as  soon  as  they  see 
them,  the  shooters  in  question  blaze  away  out  of 
distance,  and  never  touch  a  feather.  I  have  been 
out  with  men  under  circumstances  in  which  they 
said  that  the  ducks  all  came  to  me  as  if  they 
knew  me.  The  simple  cause  of  it  was  that  I 
lay  down  in  a  suit  of  corduroy,  and  they  were 
stretched  out  in  clothes  black  enough  for  a 
funeral.  If  a  man  going  to  shoot  ducks  on  the 
prairie,  by  the  ponds  and  sloughs,  has  no  corduroy 
clothes  and  no  duster,  let  him  go  to  the  grocery- 
store  and  get  a  coffee-sack  or  two  to  make  a 
smock.     That   material  is  just  the  right  color. 

In  regard  to  corn-fields,  it  must  be  noted  that 
the  ducks  appear  to  frequent  those  most  in  v/hich 
the  stalks  are  broken  down.  In  these  no  blind 
can  be  made.  If  one  is  made,  the  ducks  will  not 
come  near  it.  The  shooter  must  be  down  on  his 
back,  his  feet  towards  the  quarter  from  which  the 
ducks  are  coming,  and  wait  until  they  get  ov«r 
him.  In  a  field  where  the  corn-stalks  are  still 
standing   a    thin  blind  may  be  made  of  them,  but 


WILD    DUCKS    AND   WESTERN    DUCK-SHOOTING.      181 

more  ducks,  other  things  being  equal,  will  be 
killed  in  the  broken-down  corn  without  a  blind 
than  in  the  other  with  one.  When  the  shooter  sees 
the  ducks  coming,  he  must  not  mOve  himself,  nor 
must  he  move  his  gun,  which  young  beginners 
always  have  a  strong  inclination  to  do.  If  the 
man  moves,  the  ducks  approaching  in  the  air  see 
his  movement.  If  the  gun  is  moved,  they  catch 
the  glance  of  the  light  upon  it  in  time  to  sheer 
off  and  balk  the  idle  discharge  of  the  too  im- 
patient shooter.  When  the  ducks  are  seen  com- 
ing, the  man  on  the  ground  should  lie  quite  still 
until  they  are  over  him,  or  almost  over  him.  He 
should  then  rise  quickly  to  a  sitting  posture,  at 
which  they  will  check  their  forward  flight,  and 
tower  up  into  the  air.  That  is  the  right  time  to 
shoot — I  may  say  the  only  time,  in  this  descrip- 
tion of  the  sport,  in  which  there  is  a  real  good 
chance  of  killing.  He  who  is  trying  for  ducks 
in  this  way  must  not  expect  to  be  able  to  get  on 
his  feet  to  shoot.  If  he  tries  to  do  so,  he  will 
kill  no  ducks.  He  who  cannot  rise  to  a  sitting 
posture  from  his  back  and  shoot  that  way  must 
wait  for  the  ducks  on  his  hands  and  knees,  and 
shoot  kneeling.  It  does  not  much  matter  which 
of  these  modes  is  adopted — although   lying  on  the 


182  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

back  is  the  best  of  the  two — but  it  is  essential 
that  the  shooter  should  make  no  move  until  the 
ducks  are  nearly  over  him.  It  is  also  abso- 
lutely necessary  that  his  clothes  should  be  of  the 
color  of  the  ground  he  lies  on,  for  otherwise  the 
ducks  never  will  be  over  him.  1  have  killed  many 
thousands,  and  consider  these  to  be  the  great 
points  upon  which  the  sport  depends.  When 
there  is  snow  on  the  ground,  the  overdress  of  the 
shooter  should  be  white,  or  nearly  white,  and  a 
white  handkerchief  should  be  tied  over  his  cap. 
At  times  when  there  is  snow  on  the  ground  the 
ducks  resort  largely  to  the  corn-fields,  and  the 
sport  in  them  at  such  times  is  usually  very  good, 
provided  the  shooters  carry  it  on  in  the  right 
way. 


CHAPTER  XL 

DUCKS    AND    WE8TEKN    DUCK-SHOOTING. 

In  the  spring  of  the  year,  after  the  ducks  hare 
come  from  their  wintering-places,  there  is  often 
some  very  cold  weather,  and,  though  all  but  the 
running  streams  are  frozen  over,  the  wild  fowl 
never  go  back  again,  if  they  can  possibly  avoid  it. 
Their  instinct  is  very  strong  against  turning  to 
the  southward  at  that  season  of  the  year.  At 
such  times,  and  at  any  other  times,  when  the  ice 
is  thick,  a  good  blind  may  be  built  of  it  near  the 
open  water,  and  much  sport  may  be  had.  The 
shooter  must  of  course  expect  to  be  cold,  and  he 
will  be  very  cold  while  waiting  for  ducks  in  hard 
weather,  especially  when  he  waits  a  long  time  in 
vain.  But  the  coming  in  of  the  ducks  in  good 
flights  raises  the  spirits,  stimulates  the  circulation 
of  the  blood,  and  revives  the  warmth  of  the  body. 
I  have  sometimes  got  so  cold  that  I  could  hardly 
charge  my  muzzle-loading  gun;  but  good  sport 
soon  changed  that.  The  shooting  along  the  Illi- 
183 


184  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

nois  River  is  very  good  indeed,  and  there  are  more 
canvas-backs  and  red-heads  there  than  there  are 
about  the  Sangamon  or  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Elkhart;  but  my  favorite  among  ducks,  whether 
for  sport  or  the  table,  is  the  plump,  heavy,  beauti- 
ful mallard. 

As  ■  I  remarked  before  in  alluding  to  the  color 
of  the  duck-shooter's  clothes,  ducks  know  a  good 
deal  more  than  some  of  the  men  who  go  after 
them.  You  may  see  some  of  the  latter  select 
for  their  shooting-place  a  corn-field  in  which  the 
stalks  are  all  broken  down,  and  there  they  go 
to  work  and  build  a  standing  blind  of  the  stalks. 
"  In  vain  is  the  net  of  the  fowler  spread  in 
sight  of  the  bird."  The  ducks  have  probably 
flown  over  that  field  dozens  of  times,  and  notic- 
ing this  blind — a  thing  there  new  and  strange — 
they  sheer  ofi"  from  it  instead  of  flying  on  to 
go  over  it  or  near  it,  and  the  man  inside  of  it 
gets  no  shots  within  killing  distance.  When  I 
see  that  a  man  has  built  a  blind  in  such  a 
place,  I  just  take  advantage  of  his  ignorance  and 
folly  by  going  and  lying  down  some  hundred 
and  fifty  or  two  hundred  yards  on  one  side  of 
it.  All  the  ducks  that  sheer  off"  from  it  on  that' 
side  I  get  a  shot  at.     In  this  way   I  have  oft«n 


DUCKS    AND    WESTERN    DUCK-SHOOTING.  185 

killed  twenty  or  thirty,  while  the  man  in  the 
blind  never  got  a  duck.  Sometimes  the  man  in 
the  blind  seeing  this  would  make  shots  out  of 
all  distance,  more  for  the  purpose  of  scaring  the 
ducks  from  me  than  with  any  hope  of  bringing 
them  down  himself.  When  that  has  been  the 
case,  I  have  left  him  to  his  own  devices,  and 
gone  to  another  part  of  the  field  altogether.  It  is 
necessary  to  remark  for  the  information  of  Eastern 
readers  that  the  corn-fields  of  Illinois  are  commonly 
very  large,  and  not  like  the  small  enclosures  of 
the  Atlantic  States.  The  former  sometimes  con- 
tain as  much  as  a  thousand  acres  without  any 
intervening  fence.  Production  on  this  great  scale 
tends  to  keep  game  plentiful  in  two  or  three 
ways.  The  farm-houses  are  far  apart,  which  is 
one  thing.  As  long  as  the  corn-stalks  are  stand- 
ing green  these  fields  afford  capital  cover  for 
pinnated  grouse  and  quail,  as  remarked  hereto- 
fore. Another  thing  is  that  they  aflTord  abundance 
of  food  for  grouse,  quail,  turkeys,  geese,  ducks, 
etc.  Some  parts  of  the  summer  the  birds  get  a 
plentiful  supply  of  insects  in  the  com.  In  the 
fall  of  the  year  and  winter,  and  in  the  following 
spring,  the  grouse,  geese,  and  ducks  feed  largely 
on   the  corn   itself,  there  being  always  some  scat- 


186  FIELD   SHOOTING. 

tered   about,   even   in   the    fields    from   which    the 
ears  have  been  hauled  off'. 

Duck-shooting  in  the  corn-fields  in  the  fall  is 
fine,  pleasant  sport.  At  that  season  many  of 
the  stalks  are  still  standing,  and  plenty  of  places 
may  be  found  to  hide.  Besides,  the  ducks  are 
not  then  very  wild,  and  the  majority  of  them 
are  young  birds  which,  not  having  been  shot  at 
a  great  deal,  are  not  as  wary  as  the  old  stagers, 
who  remember  the  shooting  on  their  passage 
north  in  the  spring.  An  excellent  place  at  this 
time  of  the  year  is  on  the  windward  side  of 
an  Osage  orange  hedge,  near  where  they  cross 
on  their  way  to  feed.  When  the  wind  is  blow- 
ing against  them,  ducks  fly  low.  With  the  wind 
nearly  dead  ahead  of  them,  the  shooter  on  the 
windward  side  of  the  hedge  will  get  plenty  of 
shots  at  low-flying  ducks  as  they  come  over,  and 
need  not  take  the  trouble  to  lie  down  in  the 
corn  at  those  times.  Rainy,  misty,  windy  wea- 
ther is  the  best  of  weather  for  this  method.  On 
such  days  the  ducks  are  flying  low  and  going 
into  and  out  of  the  corn-fields  all  day.  In  clear 
weather  they  fly'  higher,  but  still  low  in  their 
evening  flights,  coming  out  to  feed.  Sometimes 
the   flocks   will   be   seen    high    in    the    air,   as    it 


DUCKS    AND    WESTERN    DUCK-SHOOTING.  187 

setting  out  on  a  long  migratory  flight;  but  com- 
ing over  a  corn-field,  they  will  sail  around,  shut 
their  wings,  and  come  sloping  to  the  ground. 
Ducks  generally  sweep  round  in  a  circle  before 
settling  down.  A  pond  or  little  slough  in  a 
corn-field  is  a  capital  place  to  lie  for  ducks. 
The  shooter  must  lie  down  on  the  bank,  as  in 
other  places.  I  have  killed  from  three  to  four 
dozen  ducks  in  an  evening's  shooting  in  a  corn- 
field, and  that  often. 

One  thing  I  have  noticed  which  will  bo  of  great 
importance  to  beginners  in  duck-shooting.  It  is  that 
they  always  seem  to  be  nearer  than  they  really  are 
when  in  flight.  Allowance  must  be  made  by  the 
shooter  for  this  deceptiveness  of  appearance  as  to 
distance.  When  1  have  killed  a  duck,  I  have  often 
been  surprised  to  find  how  far  it  fell  from  me. 
One  that  seemed  to  be  but  thirty  yards  off  would 
turn  out  to  be  forty-five.  It  was  not  the  momen- 
tum of  flight  after  being  hit  that  could  account  for 
this,  as  such  ducks  had  commonly  stopped  in  their 
forward  progress,  and  were  towering  up  when  shot 
at.  Ducks  also  seem  to  be  lower  than  they 
really  arc  when  seen  in  flight,  and  this  is  especi- 
ally the  case  in  some  sorts  of  weathc^r.  In  some 
states    of    the    atmosphere    they    will    seem    to    be 


188  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

much  nearer  than  at  other  times  when  the  dis*- 
tance  is  actually  the  same.  In  nine  eases  out  of 
ten,  when  a  man  shoots  at  ducks  flying  over  him, 
they  are  higher  in  the  air  than  he  believes  them 
to  be.  1  have  often  seen  men  fire  at  ducks 
which  were  so  high  and  so  far  off  that  the 
flock  would  not  change  its  direction  at  the  re- 
port, and  just  kept  on,  seemingly  looking  down 
contemptuously  on  the  foolish  shooter.  In  the 
spring  of  the  year  and  late  in  fall,  when  the 
ducks  are  heavily  feathered,  a  side  shot  is  best 
for  penetration,  as  it  may  take  effect  under  the 
wing.  When  shooting  from  a  blind,  it  is  best  to 
let  the  ducks  pass  a  little  before  firing.  When 
the  shooter  is  lying  on  the  ground,  the  turn 
made  by  the  ducks  as  they  tower  up  gives  better 
chance  of  penetration ;  but  the  grand  secret  of 
penetration  is  a  hard-hitting  gun  of  good  weight 
and  calibre,  and  plenty  of  powder. 

In  the  prairies  there  are  many  ponds  and 
sloughs,  and  the  waters  are  generally  well  up  in 
them  when  the  prime  of  the  time  for  shooting 
ducks  comes  in  the  spring  and  fall.  At  such 
places  it  is  advisable  to  use  decoys,  and  with 
these  well  set  out  a  man  may  shoot  on  and  off 
all  day  when  the  ducks  are  flying  about.     Wooden 


DOCKS    AND    WESTERN    DUCK-SHOOTING.  189 

decoys,  painted  to  represent  ducks,  are  used  by 
many  people,  but  I  prefer  something  different, 
more  natural  than  the  joiner  and  painter  can  turn 
out.  I  have  killed  hundreds  of  dozens  of  ducks 
shooting  over  decoys,  and  the  best  I  ever  used 
were  tame  ducks  ot  the  color  of  the  mallard. 
Three  of  these,  a  drake  and  two  ducks,  I  used 
to  fit  with  a  piece  of  leather  on  the  leg,  and  a 
string  five  or  six  yards  long  for  each.  I  then 
staked  them  out  in  shallow  water,  so  that  they 
could  not  come  nearer  than  four  or  five  feet  of 
the  bank,  and  lay  down.  They  were,  in  my 
opinion,  much  better  than  any  dead  decoy,  whe- 
ther duck  or  wood.  After  being  used  as  decoys 
for  some  time  these  ducks  seemed  to  under- 
stand what  was  required  of  them,  and  to  enter 
into  the  business  with  interest.  They  would  swim 
about  and  play,  and  I  had  one  pair  that  would 
call  to  the  wild  mallards  when  they  saw  them 
goin^  over. 

The  next  best  thing  to  these  tame  live  decoys 
for  the  waters  of  which  I  am  writing  is  the 
dead  mallard  itself.  As  soon  as  I  got  a  couple, 
when  not  employing  the  tame  ducks,  I  put  them 
out,  and  sometimes  I  have  had  as  many  as  fif- 
teen    dead    ducks    out   as    decoys    together.      Sue- 


190  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

cess  greatly  depends  upon  the  way  in  which  Ihey 
are  set  out";  though  set  out  in  the  most  artful 
and  natural  manner,  they  are  not  as  effectual  as 
tame  ducks  of  the  mallard  color,  because  these 
last  swim  about,  and  the  ducks  flying  above  see 
them  in  motion.  I  have  sometimes  killed  as 
many  as  seventy  or  eighty  ducks  in  a  day's 
shooting  with  decoys  of  dead  ducks.  My  method 
of  setting  them  out  was  as  follows :  Having 
killed  the  duck  and  got  him  on  the  bank,  take 
a  stick,  or,  on  the  prairie  where  there  are  no 
sticks,  a  reed,  or  the  stalk  of  a  strong  weed, 
w^hich  is  there  big  and  stiff*.  Shai'pen  one  end  to 
a  point,  which  insert  under  the  skin  of  the  duck's 
breast  and  along  up  the  neck,  just  beneath  the 
skin,  into  the  head.  Do  this  so  that  the  head 
holds  a  natural  position  to  the  body,  and  the 
neck  is  not  awry.  Then  wade  out  and  plant  the 
other  end  of  the  stick  in  the  mud  over  which 
there  is  a  foot  of  water  or  a  little  more.  The 
body  of  the  duck  must  then  rest  on  the  water, 
as  that  of  a  live  duck  does,  and,  after  having 
smoothed  the  feathers  nicely,  the  shooter  returns 
to  his  lying-down  place  on  the  bank.  It  is  best 
to  keep  on  setting  these  dead  decoys  until  you 
have    seven    or    eight   out ;    and    if  you    largely  in- 


DUCKS    AND    WESTERN    DUCK-SHOOTING.  191 

urease  the  number,  it  will  be  simply  all  the  bet- 
ter. I  make  no  blind  by  the  pond  or  slough,  but 
lie  on  the  grass,  unless  there  is  brush  or  a 
growth  of  willow  to  hide  in.  Neither  do  I  ever 
M'ait  for  the  ducks  to  settle,  but  shoot  while  they 
are  still  on  the  wing.  One  day  at  Skunk's  Island, 
in  the  great  Winnebago  Swamp,  I  killed  a  hun- 
dred and  thirty  ducks  over  dead-duck  decoys  set 
out  after  the  plan  I  have  described,  and  in  that 
day's  shooting  I  never  hid  at  all.  I  sat  on  a 
muskrat-house  all  the  time,  sometimes,  however, 
lying  down.  It  made  no  difference  whether  I  lay 
or  sat,  for  the  ducks  were  flying  thick,  and  in  the 
humor  to  "  come  and  be  killed,"  as  the  old  song 
has  it,  which  says : 

"  Old  Mother  Bond  got  up  in  a  rage, 
Her  pockets  full  of  onions,  her  lap  full  of  sage  ; 
And  she  went  to  the  pond,  did  old  Mother  Bond, 
Crying,  '  Dill,  dill,  dill !  dill,  dill,  dill ! 

Come  and  be  killed  ! 
The  guests  are  all  met,  their  bellies  must  be  flUed.' " 

On  the  occasion  to  which  I  have  alluded  I  was 
out  of  ammunition  before  night.  It  was  late  in 
the  fall,  when  large  flocks  fly,  and  two  or  three 
ducks   may   sometimes   be    killed    by   one    barrel. 


192  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

The  place  called  the  Inlet,  at  the  east  end  of  tho 
swamp,  some  miles  from  Skunk's  Island,  is  famouy 
ground  foi'  ducks.  The  Winnebago  Swamp  is 
very  extensive.  What  is  called  the  Outlet  runs 
into  Green  River,  all  along  which  stream  there 
is  very  good  duck-shooting.  In  the  big  pastures, 
which  are  sometimes  four  or  five  miles  long  and 
one  or  two  miles  wide,  there  are  often  ponds  at 
which  the  bullocks  being  fatted  for  market  drink. 
At  these  ponds  great  shooting  over  decoys  is  often 
to  be  had.  On  Mr.  Sullivant's  great  farm  in  Ford 
County  there  are  many  ponds  and  many  extensive 
corn-fields,  and  1  found  last  spring  that  the  shoot- 
ing of  geese,  ducks,  and  crane  there  was  very  good 
— so  good  that  I  mentally  resolved  to  go  there 
again  next  season.  In  two  days'  shooting,  morn- 
ings and  evenings,  not  over  decoys,  but  as  the 
wild  fowl  came  to  and  went  out  of  the  corn-fields, 
I  killed  sixty-five  mallards  and  pintails,  mostly 
mallards,  five  brant  geese,  twenty  sand-hill  crane, 
and  three  large  white  crane.  Yet  I  was  told  that 
the  ducks  and  brant  had  mostly  all  gone  north 
before  1  was  there,  and  that  they  had  been  much 
more  abundant  than  they  were  in  the  two  days 
1  shot.  Mr.  Sullivant's  foreman  saw  my  ducks 
and   cranes   at   the  station,  and  made  his  remarks 


DUCKS  AND  WESTERN  DUCK-SHOOTING.     193 

to  this  effect :  "  They  said  that  as  you  were  a 
pigeon-shooter,  you  would  not  be  successful  in  the 
field.  I  have,  however,  seen  no  such  lot  as  that 
at  any  time  this  season,  and  yet  the  ducks  are 
now  scarce  to  what  they  have  been." 

This  farm  of  Mr.  Michael  Sullivant's  is  the 
largest  in  Illinois,  I  think,  and  I  am  convinced 
that  it  is  one  of  the  best  neighborhoods  in  the 
State  for  game.  From  what  I  saw,  pinnated  grouse 
abound,  there  are  lots  of  quail,  and  in  the  mi- 
gratory seasons  great  flocks  cf  ducks,  geese,  brant, 
and  cranes.  The  estate  was  purchased  by  Mr. 
Sullivant  some  years  ago,  when  it  was  mostly  un- 
broken prairie.  It  is  eight  miles  square,  contains 
about  forty-four  thousand  acres,  and  twenty-six 
thousand  acres  of  it  have  already  been  brought 
under  cultivation.  Twenty  thousand  acres  of  it 
were  in  corn  last  year,  and  I  dare  say  more  will 
be  this  year,  while  three  thousand  acres  were  in 
smaller  grain,  and  three  thousand  in  meadow-grass. 
Mr.  Sullivant,  the  owner  and  farmer  of  this  ex- 
tensive and  fertile  tract,  was  formerly  the  largest 
landowner  in  Franklin  County,  Ohio,  and  very 
likely  is  so  still.  His  father  was  one  of  the  first 
settlers  near  Columbus,  the  capital  of  Ohio;  in 
fact,  he    lived   just  west    of   the    Scioto  River,  ojv 


194  *      FIELD    SHOQTIITO. 

posite  where  the  State  House  now  stands,  before 
there  was  a  house  in  Columbus  at  all ;  and  his 
younger  sons,  Joseph  and  William,  still  reside  in 
that  city.  The  Illinois  proprietor  is  the  eldest 
son  of  the  old  pioneer.  The  family  is  famous  for 
culture,  enterprise,  and  the  uncommon  personal 
beauty  of  its  members.  They  are  a  tall,  power- 
ful, handsome  race  ;  and  probably  in  all  the  vast 
regions  of  the  West  not  a  tribe  excels  this  family, 
in  all  its  branches,  in  stature,  symmetry,  strength, 
and  beauty.  Upon  this  Illinois  farm  there  are 
three  hundred  miles  of  Osage  orange  hedges,  which 
are  yet  young.  Let  the  sportsmen  remember  what 
has  been  said  of  the  hedges  as  affording  nesting- 
places  for  game-birds,  protection  against  hawks, 
and  facilities  for  shooters,  and  they  may  conceive 
what  these  three  hundred  miles  of  hedges  will  do 
when  they  have  grown  tall  and  thick.  Now  to 
come  back  to  the  ducks. 

On  the'  large  streams,  such  as  the  Mississippi 
and  Illinois  rivers,  it  is  commonly  necessary  for 
the  duck-shooter  to  use  a  boat,  and  it  is  hardly 
practicable  to  use  any  but  decoys  of  wood,  painted 
to  represent  the  sort  of  ducks  expected.  Upon 
these  rivers  I  have  killed  canvas-backs,  red-heads, 
mallards,    and    some    few    black   or   dusky  ducks. 


DUCKS    AND    WESTERN    DUCK-SHOOTING.  195 

I  have  not  been  out  much  on  these  large  rivers, 
however,  but  have  shot  more  in  the  corn-fields, 
on  the  sloughs  and  ponds  about  the  prairies,  in 
and  about  the  Great  Winnebago  Swamp,  and  on 
the  Sangamon  and  Salt  Creek.  Sometimes  when 
a  man  is  out  after  other  sorts  of  shooting,  espe- 
cially snipe,  he  will  find  that  the  ducks  are  in 
such  numbers,  and  flying  in  such  a  way,  that 
he  may  abandon  his  intended  pursuit,  and  turn 
his  attention  to  them.  His  shot  will  be  smaller 
on  such  occasions  than  he  would  have  chosen 
for  ducks ;  but  with  plenty  of  powder  to  drive 
them  at  high  velocities,  he  will  get  penetration, 
and  bring  the  wild  fowl  down.  Once  upon  Salt 
Creek,  near  where  it  falls  into  the  Sangamon,  I 
was  out  after  snipe,  and  noticed  that  the  mallards 
were  flying  in  such  a  way  as  to  afford  a  fine 
chance.  1  had  nothing  but  No.  9  shot,  but  de- 
termined to  try  what  could  be  done.  This  was 
in  1868.  The  edge  of  the  creek  was  well  timbered, 
and,  choosing  my  post,  I  seated  myself  on  a  log 
among  the  trees  and  brush.  There  was  a  light 
snow  on  the  bottoms  some  three  inches  deep, 
and  the  snipe  had  to  get  near  the  margins  of 
the  streams  to  feed.  I  could  have  killed  a  good 
hag   of    them,   but    the    ducks    offered    a    chance 


196  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

much  too  tempting  to  be  neglected.  I  could  not 
forego  the  opportunity,  and  sitting  upon  that  log, 
and  shooting  as  they  flew  until  all  my  ammuni- 
tion was  expended,  I  killed  and  secured  ninety- 
five  mallards.  Some  few,  which  fell  on  the  other 
side  of  the  creek,  I  did  not  get.  With  plenty 
of  cartridges  and  a  breech-loader  I  believe  1 
could  have  killed  two  hundred  ducks.  They 
were  all  mallards.  The  date  was  April  7. 
Most  of  the  mallards  flew  in  pairs,  and  their 
route  was  towards  the  north.  I  have  no  doubt 
they  were  beginning  their  migratory  flight  from 
our   neighborhood    to    the   high    latitudes. 

In  hard,  severe  weather,  when  the  wind  is 
strong  and  keen- cutting,  it  is  to  be  noted  that 
ducks  and  other  water-fowl  are  apt  to  seek  the 
protection  of  the  timber.  At  such  times  they  will 
be  found  in  creeks  whose  banks  are  well  wooded, 
and  about  ponds  m  the  timber.  In  these  places 
the  shooter  need  not  go  to  the  trouble  of  build- 
ing a  blind.  There  are  in  such  situations  so 
many  old  logs,  stumps,  etc.,  that  if  he  sits  down 
in  clothes  of  the  proper  color,  the  ducks  will 
not  make  him  out  in  time  to  change  the  di- 
rection of  their  course  in  flight.  Thus  on  the 
great   day   at    Skunk's    Island,   in  the   Winnebago 


DUCKS    AND    WESTERN    DUCK-SHOOTING.  197 

Swamp,  and  on  that  of  Salt  Creek,  I  had  no 
blind,  and  did  not  hide  myself  in  any  particular 
manner.  In  the  first  case  I  sat  on  a  muskrat 
house  all  the  time ;  in  the  second  I  was  seated 
on  an  old  log  while  all  the  shooting  was  done. 
It  is,  however,  necessary  that  the  shooter  should 
keep  still  ;  for  the  ducks  will  see  any  movement 
a  long  way  off,  and  they  know  that  stumps  of 
trees  and  the  like  do  not  move.  In  cold 
weather,  when  the  ducks  seek  the  timber  for 
shelter,  they  fly  very  fast ;  he  who  can  kill 
three  out  of  every  four  shots  he  makes  is  a 
good  marksman,  and  will  have  all  the  ducks  he 
will  want  to  carry   far   on   his  back. 


CHAPTER  XII 

WILD    GEESE,    CRANES,    ANU-   flWANri 

Among  the  wild  geese  to  be  Qr~.^A  in  the  spring 
and  fall  in  the  States  of  tho.  great  Mississippi 
Valley,  there  are  at  least  two  varieties  which  are 
common  in  the  same  seasons  ui  the  seaboard  of 
the  Atlantic  States.  These  i«e  the  Canada  goose, 
the  common  wild  goose,  known  almost  every- 
where, and  the  brant  gooMS,  But  besides  these, 
we  have  in  the  Western  Spates  vast  numbers  of 
small  geese  of  other  varieti<,s,  which  we  commonly 
call  Mexican  geese.  As  raany  as  three  of  these 
differ  in  their  plumage,  i,nd,  though  found  in  the 
same  flocks  apparently,  are  no  doubt  the  following : 
Hutchinson's  Goose,  the  V%^hite-Fronted  Goose,  and 
the  Snow  Goose.  As  R*&ntioned  above,  they  are 
only  known  by  Western  sportsmen  as  Mexican 
geese.  We  have,  then,  five  or  six  varieties  of 
wild  geese  in  Illinois,  I^wa,  etc.  Of  these  the 
Canada  goose  is  the  laigest  and  finest,  and  it 
used  to   be   much   the  most   numerous.      It    is    a 


WILD    GEESE,    CRANES,    AND    SWANS,  199 

handsome  bird,  weighing  when  fat  from  ten  to 
fourteen  pounds.  It  winters  in  the  south,  and  on 
its  passage  towards  the  north  does  not  stay  with 
us  a  great  while,  though  a  few  remain  all  the 
summer,  and  I  have  seen  the  nest  of  this  goose 
in  the  Winnebago  Swamp.  Their  great  breeding- 
grounds  are  far  to  the  north  of  any  of  the  habi- 
tations of  white  men,  or  even  of  Indians.  They 
have  been  seen  above  the  latitude  of  eighty  north, 
and  were  even  then  flying  on  towards  the  pole. 
In  those  solitary  regions,  during  the  brief  arctio 
summer,  the  several  kinds  of  wild  geese  rear  their 
young  in  vast  numbers,  and,  when  in  the  fall  they 
set  out  upon  their  southerly  migration,  they  fly  in 
innumerable  flocks.  They  usually  fly  high,  and, 
though  their  flight  seems  to  be  labored,  it  is  very 
swift  for  so  heavy  a  bird.  In  foggy  weather  their 
flight  is  low,  and  they  appear  to  be  confused,  as 
if  uncertain  of  the  proper  route.  They  intermix 
freely  with  tame  geese,  and  the  cross  is  much 
esteemed  for  its  size  and  excellence  on  the  table. 
Canada  geese  are  rather  easily  domesticated,  but 
even  then  the  instinct  of  migration  northward  in 
spring  is  so  strong  that  they  get  uneasy.  Some- 
times when  not  pinioned  they  rise  into  the  air 
and  join    flocks    going    over,   and   sometimes    they 


200  FIELD    8HO0TINO. 

wander  off  and  are  shot  as  wild  geese.  A  cross 
of  the  Canada  goose  no  doubt  improves  the  do- 
mestic goose  in  beauty  and  flavor,  if  not  in  size, 
and  it  is  easy  to  procure  it  by  means  of  wound- 
ed ganders,  pinioned  and  turned  down  with  the 
tame  geese. 

The  Canada  goose  is  not  so  abundant  in  Illinois 
in  the  migratory  seasons  as  it  used  to  be.  When 
I  first  settled  in  that  State,  there  were  vast  flocks 
of  these  geese  all  over  the  country  in  the  spring 
and  late  in  the  fall.  In  the  daytime  they  were 
mostly  in  the  sloughs  and  bottoms,  and  there  they 
roosted  at  night,  but  they  came  out  mornings  and 
evenings  to  feed.  They  are  very  fond  of  corn,  and 
consume  large  quantities  of  it.  The  reason  why 
they  are  now  less  abundant  in  Illinois  is  the  thicker 
settlement  of  the  country.  The  main  column 
of  the  Canada  geese  now  take  a  more  westerly 
route  towards  the  south,  crossing  Minnesota,  Kan- 
sas, Nebraska,  Iowa,  and  the  country  up  the  Mis- 
souri Eiver.  But  there  are  a  great  many  in  Illi- 
aois  still  at  the  right  times  of  the  year.  The 
Canada  goose  comes  earliest  of  all  the  great 
tribes  which  migrate  from  the  south  in  the  spring, 
and,  considering  that  most  of  them  have  to  fly 
over   a  space  covering  more  than  fifty   degrees   of 


WILD    GEESE,    CRAKES,    AND    SWANS.  201 

latitude  before  they  reach  their  breeding-places, 
it  may  be  supposed  they  cannot  stop  very  long 
with  us  in  their  vernal  flights.  As  to  the  few 
which  remain  all  the  winter  on  the  Sangamon 
River  and  in  other  wild  places  where  there  may 
be  open  water,  they  are  too  insignificant  to  count 
for  much.  The  Canada  geese  come  in  their  great 
flocks  in  February,  with  the  first  freshet  or  open 
weather,  and  remain  till  the  middle  of  March,  as 
a  rule,  while  a  few  linger  along  until  April  comes. 
They  come  before  any  of  the  ducks,  and  they  go 
on  north  before  them.  The  Wiimebago  Swamp  is 
a  great  resort  for  the  wild  geese.  Formerly  they 
used  to  breed  there  in  considerable  numbers,  but 
of  late  years  their  nests  in  that  quarter  have  been 
few.  They  may,  however,  still  be  found  by  those 
who  penetrate  into  the  marshy  recess  they  choose. 
for  their  breeding-places. 

When  the  wild  geese  arrive  in  the  spring,  they 
are  commonly  lean,  but,  after  having  fed  on  corn 
for  a  little  space,  they  gain  flesh  and  become  in 
good  order.  A  favorite  resort  of  theirs  in  the 
spring  is  the  great  pasture-lands.  Upon  these 
thousands  of  bullocks  havie  been  fed  all  winter  on 
corn  in  the  ear.  Bullocks  are  wastcfid  feeders,  and 
much    corn    lies    shelled    around.     This    the    gcesQ 


202  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

pick  up  and  fatten  upon.  In  such  places  the  flocks 
alight  in  the  middle  of  the  wide  pastures,  and  are 
very  hard  to  get  at.  Oftentimes  the  first  notice 
we  have  of  the  arrival  of  the  wild  geese  is  their 
hoarse  call  in  the  air,  as  they  fly  by  night.  When 
great  flocks  of  the  various  kinds  of  wild  geese  are 
coming  north  in  spring,  or  going  south  at  the  near 
approach  of  winter,  they  may  be  heard  calling  to 
and  answering  each  other  nearly  all  night  long. 
The  Sangamon  used  to  be  a  capital  place  for  wild 
geese,  and  there  is  still  good  shooting  there. 

The  best  situation  for  the  shooter  is  behind  a 
hedge  or  in  a  bunch  of  weeds  at  a  fence  near  their 
crossing-places  as  they  go  to  feed.  It  is  best  when 
they  are  flying  to  windward.  The  wild  geese  have 
regular  crossing-places,  and  these  may  be  easily 
ascertained  by  watching  the  flights  of  the  flocks. 
The  shooter  must  go  to  his  station  very  early  in 
the  morning,  before  they  begin  to  fly.  They  fly 
very  early,  especially  if  the  w^eather  is  warm  and 
2)leasant.  In  cold,  windy  weather  they  are  later. 
Commonly  they  are  on  the  wing  about  break  of 
day,  and  I  have  seen  them  flying  when  it  was  still 
so  near  dark  that  I  could  hardly  tell  whether  a 
flock  was  Canada  geese,  brant  geese,  or  the  so- 
called  Mexican  geese.     When  the  wild  geese  come 


WILD    GEESE,    CRANES,    AND    SWANS.  203 

over  their  crossing-places  well  in  the  air,  the 
shooter  must  find  some  means  of  concealment.  If 
there  is  no  hedge  under  which  to  crouch  do\\Ti,  he 
must  lie  on  the  dead  grass  or  in  the  weeds, 
with  clothes  of  the  proper  color  to  deceive  the 
geese  and  elude  the  watchful  eyes  of  their  leaders. 
The  weeds  are  often  three  feet  high  and  thick,  and 
in  these  cover  for  the  shooter  may  be  found.  He 
must  keep  quite  still  until  the  geese,  windward 
bound,  are  right  over  him.  If  he  does  not  do  so, 
his  movement  will  be  seen,  he  will  hear  the  cry 
which  gave  notice  to  the  sleeping  Romans  of  the 
stealthy  footsteps  of  the  Gauls,  and  he  will  find, 
whether  he  shoots  or  not,  that  the  geese  have  saved 
the  Capital.  On  windy  mornings  wild  geese  fly 
very  low,  often  not  more  than  fifteen  or  twenty 
feet  from  the  ground.  In  calm,  clear  weather  they 
are  much  higher.  Nothing  can  be  done  at  the 
hedges  and  fences  in  such  weather,  and  the  shooter 
must  then  go  to  the  corn-fields  where  they  feed. 

A  field  in  which  the  corn  is  cut  up  and  shocked 
affords  a  promising  chance.  The  shooter  may  build 
a  little  house  of  corn-stalks  like  a  shock,  in  the 
row  of  shocks,  and  get  inside  of  it.  Some  men 
get  behind  a  corn-shock,  but  the  plan  is  not  a 
good    one.     In    circling    round    the    field  one  of  the 


204  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

geese  sees  him,  and  the  others  keep  away,  sheer 
off  wide.  The  little  blind  made  like  a  shock  of 
corn  is  best,  but  it  must  be  made  ready  in  the 
daytime,  or  in  the  night  season  before  the  geese 
have  begun  to  fly.  In  wet,  misty  weather  the 
wild  geese  remain  about  the  corn-fields  all  day, 
and  then  from  a  blind  properly  made  the  very 
best  shooting  may  be  had.  I  have  killed  eleven 
Canada  geese  before  breakfast  in  one  of  Mr. 
Gillott's  corn-fields,  not  more  than  a  mile  and  a 
half  from  Elkhart.  I  went  out  to  the  field  on 
horseback,  and  tethered  my  horse  to  a  fence. 

In  windy  weather  the  best  shooting  is  at  the 
crossing-places,  and  the  shooter  must  choose  his 
place  and  method  according  to  the  weather.  On 
the  large  pastures  the  best  plan  is  to  use  a  horse 
and  buggy.  The  wild  geese  may  be  seen  sitting 
in  the  pastures  and  in  the  prairie  when  they  are 
a  long  way  off.  The  shooter  must  drive  briskly 
on,  as  if  he  was  going  past  them,  on  the  wind- 
ward side,  gradually  drawing  nearer,  but  never 
heading  directly  towards  them.  If  he  does  the 
latter,  the  flock  will  fly,  although  he  may  be  as 
much  as  two  hundred  yards  from  them.  When 
the  shooter  is  opposite  the  geese,  he  pulls  up  the 
horse  v/ith    one    hand,    drops    the    reins,  and   raises 


WILD    GEESE,    CRANES,    AND    SWANS.  205 

his  gun.  The  geese  start  to  fly,  but  they  cannot 
rise  down-wind,  and,  getting  up  against  it,  as  they 
must  do,  they  come  towards  the  gun.  Then  is 
the  time  to  fire ;  but  beware  of  miscalculating  the 
distance.  Geese  look  very  large  on  the  prairie.  I 
have  seen  men  shoot  at  geese,  believing  them  to 
be  within  killing  distance,  when  they  were  certainly 
not  less  than  two  hundred  yards  away.  I  have 
also  seen  them  fired  at  in  flight  when  they  were 
so  high  in  the  air  that  they  passed  without  no- 
ticing the  shot.  Yet  a  goose  may  be  killed  at 
a  great  distance  with  large  shot  if  it  happens  to 
be  hit  in  a  vital  part. 

I  once  killed  one  at  a  hundred  and  nineteen  yards 
with  a  BB  cartridge.  The  ground  was  measured, 
as  I  knew  it  was  a  very  long  shot.  It  was  a  chance 
shot.  I  had  driven  on  the  flock  two  or  three  times, 
and  had  been  unable  to  get  within  distance.  I  drove 
for  them  again,  and,  seeing  that  they  were  just 
going  to  fly,  I  pulled  up  and  let  go  one  barrel 
just  as  they  rose.  Of  late  years  I  have  killed  as 
many  by  driving  for  them  with  a  smart  horse  as  in 
any  other  way.  "When  shooting  in  this  method, 
I  once  killed  five  geese  with  the  two  barrels,  and 
have  ofl;en  killed  from  ten  to  fifteen  a  day  from  the 
buggy.     The  greatest  number  I  ever  killed  in  a  day 


206  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

was  twenty-three.  That  was  in  a  corn-field  where  the 
corn  was  in  shock,  and  I  shot  from  such  a  blind  as 
I  have  described  above.  It  was  near  Elkhart,  arid 
on  one  of  those  wet,  misty  days  in  the  spring  on 
which  the  Canada  geese  are  flying  about  and  feed- 
ing all  day.  I  generally  use  No.  1  shot  for  geese. 
It  is  quite  large  enough  with  plenty  of  powder  to 
drive  it  home.  In  shooting  geese  from  a  blind 
the  shooter  must  keep  quite  still  until  they  are 
near  enough.  When  he  has  killed,  he  must  pick 
up  the  goose  and  return  to  his  blind. 

When  young  wheat  is  among  the  corn-shocks, 
the  small  grain  having  been  sown  the  previous  fall, 
it  is  a  favorite  resort  for  wild  geese.  A  live  de- 
coy— a  wild  goose  that  was  winged,  and  which  has 
been  saved  for  the  purpose — may  be  staked  out  in 
the  field,  and  the  geese  will  come  down  to  it.  In 
the  fields  of  early  spring  wheat,  where  there  are  no 
corn-shocks,  there  are  sometimes  many  geese.  They 
eat  off  the  green  plants,  and  the  farmers,  thinking 
them  an  intolerable  nuisance,  used  to  put  up  scare- 
crows, as  people  do  in  some  parts  to  keep  away 
swamp  blackbirds  and  crows  from  young  springing 
corn.  In  such  a  wheat-field  the  shooter  may  dig 
a  hole,  and,  smoothing  over  the  ground,  get  into 
it  and  wait  for  the  geese.     If  it  is  too  wet  for  that. 


WILD    GEESE,    CRANES,    AND    SWANS,  207 

he  may  sink  a  large  barrel  or  small  hogshead,  and 
from  that  get  very  nice  shooting.  From  a  barrel 
placed  in  a  marsh  known  to  be  a  good  resort  for 
geese,  much  shooting  may  be  had  all  the  spring 
season,  but  it  must  be  planted  there  before  the 
wild  geese  have  come  from  the  south.  It  is  better 
than  boat-shooting,  and  perhaps  better  than  any 
other  plan,  taking  the  spring  season  all  through. 
When  a  hole  is  dug  in  a  wheat-field  to  which  the 
wild  geese  have  taken,  it  should  be  made  soon 
after  their  arrival ;  and  when  they  get  used  to  it, 
much  nice  shooting  may  be  had  there. 

But  the  best  shooting  at  Canada  geese,  and  the 
best  geese  for  the  table,  are  in  the  fall  of  the  year, 
when  the  young  geese  come  on  from  the  far 
northern  regions  in  which  they  have  been  bred. 
Their  arrival  is  not  looked  for  until  we  have  had 
some  stiff  frost,  and  that  is  usually  about  the  first 
of  November.  The  corn  is  then  just  being  cut 
up,  and  the  fall  wheat  is  well  out  of  the  ground. 
At  first  the  wild  geese  go  upon  the  young  wheat, 
and  they  eat  it  off  close  sometimes.  When  the 
corn  has  been  shocked  and  left  on  the  fields,  they 
go  into  that.  The  various  kinds  of  wild  geese, 
ducks,  and  cranes  consume  a  great  deal  of  corn. 
In  some  wet  places  I  have  known  them   to  eat  a 


208  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

third  of  the  crop.  Later  on  in  the  winter  the 
wild  geese  do  not  go  into  the  standing  corn,  as 
wild  ducks  do.  The  former  are  equally  wary  and 
more  shy,  and  they  will  not  go  into  places  where 
there  seems  to  be  afforded  a  chance  to  crawl  on 
them.  In  regard  to  their  roosting-places  wild 
geese  are  cunning  and  secretive.  They  mostly 
choose  for  their  sleeping-places  large,  wet  marshes 
and  the  margins  of  ponds  in  big  bottoms,  where 
there  is  open  water.  When  there  is  ice  in  the 
marshes  and  on  the  ponds,  they  roost  on  that. 
These  roosting-places  are  generally  far  away  from 
the  settlements,  and  in  places  that  are  almost  in- 
accessible. A  few  flocks  still  roost  near  the  ponds 
in  the  Salt  Creek  and  Sangamon  bottoms.  These 
bottoms  are  more  than  a  mile  wide  in  some  places, 
and  the  bottoms  of  the  Illinois  and  Mississippi 
Rivers  are  wider  still.  Crane  Lake  in  Mason 
County,  a  wild,  marshy  place,  is  a  favorite  roost- 
ing-place  for  wild  geese. 

When  a  roosting-place  has  been  found,  capital 
success  may  be  looked  for.  It  can  seldom  be 
found  except  by  watching  the  flights  of  wild  geese 
nights  and  mornings,  having  a  good  knowledge 
of  the  country,  and  using  proper  judgment.  The 
shooter  goes  to  it  at  sundown,  and,  lying  down  in 


WILD    GEESE,    CRANES,    AND    SWANS.  209 

the  grass  with  clothes  of  the  proper  hue,  waits  for 
geese.  They  come  in  late  in  the  evening,  and 
keep  coming,  flock  after  flock,  imtil  nine  or  ten  at 
night,  and  sometimes  until  eleven.  On  Mr.  Sulli- 
vant's  tract,  in  Ford  County,  before  they  are 
much  shot  at,  the  wild  geese  roost  about  the 
ponds  in  the  prairie ;  but  when  they  have  been 
disturbed  there  a  few  times,  they  go  further  off" 
to  wild  places  in  the  extensive  swamps.  Wild 
geese  do  not  frequent  timber-land,  except  when 
the  weather  is  very  cold  and  blustering,  or 
when  there  is  a  fall  of  snow.  At  those  times 
they  go  into  the  timber  along  creeks  and  rivers, 
and   may   be   found   there. 

Some  years  ago  I  and  three  others  found  out 
that  there  was  a  small  roosting-place  on  the 
Sangamon  River  just  below  the  mouth  of  Salt 
Creek.  There  came  a  sudden  frost  and  intense 
cold  weather,  with  some  snow.  We  knew  that  at 
such  a  time  the  river  would  be  frozen  over  near 
the  place  the  geese  frequented,  and  that  they 
would  roost  on  the  ice.  At  break  of  day  we  got 
up,  and  drove  in  a  sleigh  three  miles  to  where 
we  knew  the.  wild  geese  would  be  found.  In 
such  weather  they  do  not  fly  before  nine  or  ten 
o'clock  in  the  morning.      The   river  was   low,  and 


210  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

before  we  got  to  the  bank  we  could  hear  the 
flock  of  geese,  on  the  ice  below,  chattering  in  the 
cold.  There  was  heavy  timber  on  both  banks, 
and  we  crept  up  in  it  on  our  side  until  we 
were  within  about  forty  yards  of  the  pack  of  geese 
on  the  ice  below.  As  we  raised  ourselves  up,  the 
wild  fowl  started  to  fly,  and  we  put  in  the  dis- 
charge from  our  eight  barrels  as  they  were 
rising,  and  killed  ten.  Our  guns  were  muzzle- 
loaders.  If  they  had  been  breech-loaders,  we 
could  have  charged  and  shot  again,  as  the  geese 
seemed  bewildered  for  a  little  while,  and  did  not 
fly  straight  away.     Now  began  my   bad   luck. 

The  wild  geese,  as  a  matter  of  course,  fell 
on  the  ice.  It  was  what  is  called  slush 
ice,  which  is  none  of  the  strongest,  but  weak 
and  treacherous  even  when  thick.  My  companions 
were  afraid  to  go  out  for  the  dead  geese,  and  I 
had  to  go,  though  the  heaviest  man  of  the  party. 
It  is  my  habit,  when  out  shooting,  hardly  ever 
to  let  my  gun  be  out  of  my  hands,  and  it  was 
now  lucky  that  in  going  on  the  ice  for  these 
geese  I  carried  it  with  me.  I  had  brought  some 
of  the  geese  to  the  bank,  and  gone  out  for  the 
balance.  The  furthest  two  I  got,  and  was  just 
stooping    to    pick     up     the   last   when    in    I    went. 


WILD    GEESE,    CRANES,    AND    SWANS.  211 

I  had  gone  in  a  sort  of  air-hole,  which,  being 
covered  with  broken  ice  and  snow,  I  had  not 
perceived.  The  river  was  twenty  feet  deep,  and  I 
came  near  being  drowned.  However,  by  means 
of  the  gun  in  one  hand  and  the  three  geese  in 
the  other,  I  got  such  a  spread  on  the  ice  that 
I  did  not  go  clean  under.  Two  of  my  com- 
panions were  so  scared  by  the  suddenness  of  the 
occurrence  and  the  danger  of  the  situation  that 
they  could  do  nothing.  The  other  got  an  old 
ten-foot  rail,  and,  shoving  it  to  me,  enabled  me 
to  struggle  to  the  bank,  gun,  geese,  and  all.  The 
cold  was  so  intense  that  my  clothes  were  all  frozen 
stiff  the  minute  after  i  was  out  of  the  water.  It 
was  three  miles  to  a  house  and  a  stove,  and 
before  we  got  there  I  was  like  a  solid  six-foot 
chunk  of  ice.  I  then  got  on  dry  clothes,  wrap- 
ped myself  in  a  blanket,  took  a  seat  by  the  fire, 
and  drank  half  a  pint  of  strong  whiskey,  neat. 
I  was  soon  all  right  again ;  but  when  the  blood 
began  to  circulate  in  the  numbed  parts,  the  pain 
was  intense  for  the  time.  I  did  not  even  take  cold 
from  that  ducking. 

Being  much  in  the  water,  however,  in  the  West- 
ern country,  entails  something  wui-se  than  a  cold, 
if  not  worse  than  rheumatism.     I    mean    the    ague. 


212  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

When  I  first  went  to  Illinois,  I  shot  many  geese; 
and  if  one  fell  in  a  pond  or  slough,  I  waded  in 
waist-deep  to  bring  it  out.  The  old  settlers 
used  to  tell  me  that  it  was  a  bad  practice;  but 
I  had  never  been  sick  in  my  life  to  any  degree 
of  importance,  and  had  no  fears.  But  after  being 
there  a  year,  out  in  all  sorts  of  weather,  and 
often  in  and  out  of  the  water  two  or  three  times 
a  day,  I  caught  the  ague,  and  had  it  eleven 
months.  It  was  not  the  mild  ague,  such  as  pre- 
vails to  some  extent  on  the  Atlantic  coast  of 
the  Northern  States,  but  the  powerful  Western 
ague,  which  shakes  a  man  so  that  his  bones  al- 
most rattle  as  well  as  his  teeth.  In  the  course 
of  the  eleven  months  it  was  broken  up  several 
times,  but  always  came  back  again.  Now,  there 
are  a  great  many  infallible  remedies  for  the  ague. 
I  took  about  a  score  of  them,  but  didn't  get  well. 
At  last,  however,  I  got  hold  of  the  real  thing.  It 
cured  me,  and  much  experience  of  it  since  for 
sixteen  years  has  convinced  me  that  it  is  the 
best  thing  in  the  world  to  cure  the  complaint. 
It  is  not  a  patent  medicine.  The  editor  of  this 
book,  to  whom  I  am  relating  my  experience,  and 
who  had  experience  of  the  shakes  himself  in 
Michigan  from  July  to    Christmas,   says  he  wishes 


WILD    GEESE,    CRANES,    AND    SWANS.  213 

it  was,  as  we  could  get  five  hundred  dollars,  in 
that  case,  for  this  notice  of  it.  It  is  simply 
lemon-juice  and  Holland  gin.  Squeeze  the  juice 
of  five  or  six  lemons  into  a  quart  of  gin,  and 
take  a  good  dram  of  it  three  times  a  day.  It  is 
not  only  pleasant,  but  effectual,  and  it  will  cure 
as  well  as  prevent  the  ague.  At  the  same  time 
avoid  getting  wet  as  much  as  possible,  especially 
in  the  ponds  and  sloughs. 

Shooting  brant  geese  is  much  the  same  in 
method  as  shooting  Canada  geese.  They  are 
about  half  the  size  of  the  latter,  and  very  good  eat- 
ing. There  is  this  difference  in  their  habits :  the 
brant  do  not  go  so  much  into  fields  where  the 
corn  is  shocked,  but  use  more  where  it  is  not 
cut  up,  but  the  stalks  are  much  broken  down. 
In  the  early  spring  a  man  may  see  acres  of  such 
corn-fields  covered  with  brant.  To  shoot  thorn 
there  he  must  lie  down  as  I  have  directed  for  duck- 
shooting  in  the  like  places.  With  the  brant,  at 
least  in  close  proximity,  will  be  found  what  we 
call  Mexican  geese.  They  are  about  the  same 
size  as  the  brant,  and  though  there  are  at  least 
four  kinds,  to  judge  by  the  plumage  and  mark- 
ings, they  are  in  flocks  all  mixed  up  together. 
Sometimes   there    will  be  half  a  dozen  brant    in    a 


214  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

flock  of  these  mixed  Mexicans.  The  latter  are 
more  numerous  now  than  either  Canada  geese  or 
brant.  They  have  increased  in  number  of  late 
years,  not  only  relatively,  but  absolutely.  Just 
before  they  go  off  northwards  in  the  spring  the 
mixed  flocks  of  these  geese  pack  together  on  the 
prairies  and  on  rather  elevated  spots  imtil  there 
are  three  or  four  thousand  in  a  body.  They  leave 
in  these  great  packs.  When  they  have  gathered, 
and  are  preparing  to  set  out  on  their  long  flight 
they  may  be  seen  to  rise  and  circle  round  so  as 
to  cast  a  shadow  on  the  ground  like  a  cloud. 
These  geese  fly  by  night.  They  always  seem  to 
arrive  in  the  night,  and  they  leave  by  night. 
They  utter  a  different  cry  from  Canada  geese  and 
from  brant,  and  are  much  more  noisy  than  either. 
When,  in  their  flight  through  the  air,  they  go  over, 
or  nearly  over,  the  lights  of  a  town  or  village, 
they  make  a  great  row.  On  the  table  they  are 
plump  and  nice,  as  good  as  brant,  but  to  my 
thinking  not  as  good  as  the  Canada  goose.  That 
is  the  king  of  the  wild  geese ;  more  juicy  than 
any  other,  as  well  as  twice  the  size.  The  great 
mixed  flocks  of  Mexican  geese  present  a  mottled 
appearance  when  clearly  seen.  Some  are  pale 
blue  in  color,  some  grizzly  gray,  some  have   white 


WILD    GEESE,    CRANES,    AND    SWANS.  215 

heads  and  necks,  some  are  all  white  except  the 
ends  of  the  wings,  which  in  them  are  black, 
if  any  naturalist  of  New  York,  Boston,  or  Phila- 
delphia would  like  to  have  a  specimen  of  each  of 
these  geese,  1  can  send  them. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  cranes  plentiful  in  Illi- 
nois in  the  spring  and  fall  of  the  year.  The  most 
abundant  is  the  sand-hill  crane,  a  well-known 
bird.  With  a  body  as  large  as  that  of  a  goose, 
he  stands  upon  long  legs,  so  that  he  is  four  and 
a  half  or  five  feet  high.  They  winter  in  the  south, 
and  go  to  high  northern  latitudes  to  breed.  A 
few  nests  are  made  in  the  Winnebago  Swamp,  but 
only  a  few.  They  do  not  resort  about  water  much, 
although  they  choose  their  roosting-place  near  it. 
In  the  spring  they  are  first  seen  very  high  in  the 
air,  circling  round  and  uttering  loud  cries,  so  high  up 
as  hardly  to  be  perceived.  In  my  opinion,  they 
fly  higher  than  any  other  bird,  not  even  excepting 
eagles  and  vultures.  When  the  cry  of  the  crane 
is  heard  coming  out  of  the  sky,  as  it  were,  people 
know  that  winter  is  quite  over,  and  that  warm 
weather  is  going  to  come  in  shortly.  When  seen 
sitting  on  the  prairie  in  flocks,  they  look  like 
sheep  at  a  distance. 

They   arrive   with    us   according   to   the    season, 


21ft  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

usually  aliout  the  tenth  of  March,  and  stay  a  month. 
Like  the  wild  geese  and  ducks,  cranes  frequent  tho 
corn-fields  for  the  purpose  of  feeding.  The  fevr 
nests  made  in  Illinois  contain  but  two  eggs,  and 
one  of  the  old  birds  is  always  on  the  watch  near 
them.  They  return  in  the  fall  about  the  same  time 
as  the  wild  geese,  but  do  not  then  fly  so  high  as 
in  the .  spring ;  perhaps  it  is  because  many  of  them, 
are  young  birds.  In  the  fall  they  are  first  seen 
out  on  the  prairie,  and  a  very  unwelcome  sight  it 
is  to  the  farmer;  for  they  are  very  hard  on  his  crop 
of  corn,  much  of  which  is  then  cut  up  and  shocked 
in  the  fields.  Boys  are  employed  to  keep  them 
away.  I  have  often  seen  large  pieces  of  corn-land 
in  shock  when  all  the  ears  on  the  outside  had  been 
shelled  and  eaten,  not  a  kernel  left.  They  stay- 
as  long  as  the  wild  geese,  which  is  until  real  hard 
weather  sets  in.  Cranes  are  easy  birds  to  shoot 
when  you  can  get  a  fair  shot  at  them,  but  they  are 
wary  and  shy,  keeping  a  good  lookout  all  the 
time.  It  is  of  no  use  to  lie  down  in  corn  for  them. 
They  can  see  further  and  better  than  any  other 
bird  1  know.  The  immense  height  at  which  they 
fly  in  the  spring  has  convinced  me  of  this.  To 
shoot  them,  when  they  have  been  shot  at  and  made 
shy  and   wary,  one  of  two  methods   must   be   fol- 


WILD    GEESE,    CRANES,    AND    SWANS.  217 

lowed.  By  watching  their  flights  to  and  from 
corn-fields  their  crossing-places  may  be  found. 
At  one  of  these  the  shooter  must  post  himself 
under  an  Osage  orange  hedge  on  the  windward 
side.  Then  he  must  wait  for  a  lot  to  come  over. 
In  windy  weather  and  going  to  windward  they 
fly  low  and  slow,  and  are  very  easily  hit.  But 
it  takes  hard  hitting  to  kill  them,  as  they  are 
thickly  feathered.  When  going  for  cranes,  I  use 
No.  1  or  No.  2  shot  in  my  cartridges  with  strong 
charge  of  powder.  Some  think  heavier  shot  neces- 
sary, but  I  know  they  are  not.  At  Mr.  Sullivant's 
farm  in  Ford  County,  last  spring,  I  shot  twenty 
sand-hill  cranes  and  three  of  the  larsre  white 
variety.  I  had  no  larger  shot  than  No.  6,  having 
gone  without  expectation  of  getting  any  shooting 
except  at  ducks,  mallards,  and  pintails. 

There  were,  however,  large  numbers  of  cranes, 
and  I  found  out  that  they  roosted  near  ponds  in 
the  neighboring  prairie.  I  knew  then  that  I  could 
get  close  shots  when  they  came  at  dusk.  Loading 
my  cartridges  for  that  shooting  with  six  drams 
of  powder  and  an  ounce  of  shot,  and  taking  post 
near  the  edge  of  the  pond,  which  was  from  one 
to  two  acres  in  extent,  I  waited  for  their  coming. 
The    first    cveninj!:  I   killed    seven   sand-hill    cranes 


218  i'lELD    SHOOTING. 

and  the  three  large  white  ones,  and  the  next  night 
thirteen  of  the  sand-hills.  The  large  white  crane 
is  bigger  than  the  sand-hill,  and  sometimes  attains 
the  enormous  weight  of  thirty  pounds ;  that  is, 
he  yreighs  as  much  as  two  good  turkeys.  It  is 
pure  white,  except  the  ends  of  the  wings,  which 
are  black.  The  largest  of  the  three  I  killed  was  a 
magnificent  specimen.  He  measured  seven  feet  eight 
inches  across  the  wings,  stood  five  feet  ten  inches 
high,  and  weighed  thirty  pounds.  I  gave  it  to 
Mr.  Gillott,  of  the  great  farm  near  Elkhart,  and  he 
had  a  description  of  it  published  in  the  Lincoln, 
Logan  County,  paper,  headed,  "  Captain  Bogardus's 
Mammoth  Crane." 

It  is  hard  to  get  within  shot  of  the  white  crane. 
They  are  seldom  killed,  except  near  the  ponds, 
when  they  come  to  roost  at  night.  It  has  a  very 
keen  as  well  as  far  sight,  and  nothing  but  the  fact 
that  it  is  almost  dark  when  they  come  to  the 
roosting-place  enables  the  shooter  to  get  a  chance 
at  them.  A  crane  of  either  kind  winged  will 
make  a  desperate  fight,  and  is  a  dangerous  custo- 
mer for  the  unwary  to  deal  with.  If  man  or  dog 
comes  within  striking  distance,  the  crane  aims  at 
the  eye  with  his  sharp-pointed  bill,  some  six  inches 
long.     The  bird   will   drive  his   bill  into  a  dog   as 


WILD    GEESE,    CRANES,    AND    SWANS.  219 

if  it  were  a  dagger.  I  have  had  a  dog  that  had 
never  seen  crane  before  go  in  to  catch  one  that 
was  winged,  but  he  came  out  again  after  getting 
one  stroke.  The  white  crane  is  not  nearly  as 
numerous  as  the  sand-hill.  Its  habits  are  the 
same,  but  there  are  only  from  eight  to  twelve 
in  a  flock.  I  never  saw  a  nest  of  this  crane, 
and  believe  it  never  builds  in  Illinois. 

Both  the  cranes  are  fine  eating.  The  meat  is 
dark,  and  the  breast,  when  well  hung  and  properly 
cooked,  is  as  fine  as  the  best  venison.  At  one 
time  1  thought  they  were  good  for  nothing,  but 
a  circumstance  happened  which  changed  my  opinion 
altogether.  I  was  out  shooting  pinnated  grouse 
late  in  the  fall  with  a  companion,  and  we  camped, 
or  rather  took  shelter,  slept,  and  cooked  in  a  herds- 
man's hut  which  had  been  deserted.  The  cattle 
had  been  driven  away,  and  the  hut  was  tenant- 
less.  It  was  on  the  Delavan  prairie.  I  killed  a 
sand-hill  crane,  and  hung  it  on  the  fence  by  the 
hut.  It  remained  there  eight  or  nine  days  and 
as  many  frosty  nights.  We  had  good  sport, 
plenty  to  eat,  and  forgot  all  about  the  crane. 
But  on  the  evening  of  one  day,  on  which  we  had 
sent  all  our  game  away  in  the  afternoon,  it  was 
found  that  by  an   oversight  we  had  reserved  none 


220  FIELD    SHOOTINQ. 

for  our  suppers  and  breakfasts.  I  then  remembered 
the  crane,  and  going  to  the  fence  I  picked  the 
breast,  and  cut  it  off  in  slices  or  steaks.  These 
we  fried  in  butter.  There  was  a  prairie  road  or 
track  running  by  the  hut.  It  was  commonly  but 
little  used,  but  on  this  occasion,  while  the  steaks 
were  being  cooked,  a  man  and  a  woman  came  by 
in  a  buggy.  As  she  caught  the  rich  flavor  from 
the  hot  pan,  the  woman  said,  "Those  men  must 
have  something  very  good  to  eat."  She  was  right. 
When  we  came  to  our  crane-steaks,  we  both 
thought  we  had  never  eaten  anything  so  good  in 
our  lives.  It  is  true  that  the  frosty  air  of  the 
prairie  late  in  the  fall  sharpens  the  appetite,  and 
true  that  we  were  hungry,  and  hunters  at  that; 
but  it  is  also  true  that  the  steaks  were  delicious 
eating.  The  meat  was  rich  and  juicy,  and  it  had 
been  frozen  and  thawed  a  sufficient  number  of 
times  to  make  it  very  tender.  Since  then,  if  a 
crane  was  within  shot,  I  have  never  let  him  get 
away,  if  I  could  help  it.  The  flesh  of  the  white 
crane  is  quite  as  good  as  that  of  the  sand-hill 
kind. 

Cranes  need  to  be  hung  for  a  long  time  be- 
fore being  cooked,  and  almost  all  game  is  the 
better   for   being   hung,  if  the   weather   is   cool   or 


WILD    GEESE,    CRANES,    AND    SWANS.  221 

cold.  Perhaps  snipe  and  woodcock  may  be  excep- 
tions. You  can  hardly  hang  pinnated  grouse  too  long 
when  they  keep  sweet.  I  have  eaten  them  a  month 
after  they  were  killed  in  the  winter,  and  none 
could  be  finer.  Quail  are  all  the  better  for 
being  hung.  So  are  Canada  geese  and  other  wild 
geese,  together  with  mallard  ducks  and  wild  tur- 
keys. Of  course  young  grouse  shot  in  August 
or  the  warm  days  of  September  cannot  be  hung, 
and  they  are  very  good  eating  when  cooked  fresh, 
but  not  better  than  winter  grouse  hung  a  long 
time,  stuffed,  roasted,  and  eaten  with  bread-sauce, 
made  gravy,  and  hot,  mealy  potatoes. 

A  few  pelicans  are  shot  along  the  upper  part 
'  of  the  Mississippi  River.  Occasionally  a  small 
flight  of  swans  come  over  Central  Illinois,  and 
sometimes  they  alight  in  the  Winnebago  Swamp 
or  the  Sangamon  bottoms ;  but  these  occurrences 
are  rare.  My  brother  once  killed  three  late  in 
the  fall  on  the  Sangamon  bottom.  They  were 
going  south,  and  alighted  at  a  pond  where  he 
was  lying  for  geese  at  roosting-time.  At  a  place 
in  the  Winnebago  Swamp  called  Swan  Lake  they 
sometimes  alight  on  their  passage.  I  have  never 
killed  one.  Going  down  the  Mississippi  last  win- 
ter, I    saw,    from    the    steamboat,   many  swans   in 


222  /  FIELD   SHOOTING. 

the  bayous  and  on  the  sand-islands.  At  New 
Orleans  I  was  told  by  Mr.  Charleville,  the  gun- 
smith, that  there  was  a  fine  place  for  shooting  all 
sorts  of  wild  fowl  below  the  city,  called  The 
Dump.  I  saw  plenty  of  mallards,  there  called 
French   ducks,  in  the  market. 


CHAPTER  Xlll. 

WILD  TURKEY  AND  DEER  SHOOMNG. 

Of  all  the  feathered  game  that  runs  and  flies, 
the  wild  turkey  of  America  is  the  noblest  and 
most  beautiful  of  which  I  ever  heard.  In  one 
sense  the  ostrich  of  the  Arabian  desert  or  the 
emu  of  the  Australian  plains  might  be  deemed 
an  exception.  They,  however,  do  not  fly ;  and 
though  their  size,  plumage,  and  fleetness  invest 
them  with  a  sort  of  grandeur,  and  their  feathers 
are  valuable  as  ornaments  for  the  head-dresses  of 
ladies,  they  are  neither  so  beautiful  nor  so  useful 
and  excellent  as  food  as  the  wild  turkey.  In- 
deed, the  flesh  of  the  latter  is  hardly  surpassed  by 
anything  in  succulence,  richness  of  flavor,  and  nutri- 
ment, and  it  is  vastly  superior  to  that  of  any  tame 
turkey  that  ever  was  fed  and  roasted  or  boiled. 
It  is  well  known  that  the  tame  turkey  is  de- 
scended from  the  wild  ti;rkey  of  America.  Before 
the  discovery  of  this  continent  the  bird  was  un- 
known in  Europe,  and  had  never  been  seen  in 
Turkey  in   Asia.     It   may   be   easily   domesticated, 


224  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

and  a  (BW)8^  of  the  wild  gobbler  with  tame  hen- 
turkeys  always  improves  the  flock  in  size  and 
excellence. 

At  one  time  the  wild  turkey  was  plentiful  all 
over  this  country,  from  Texas  to  Canada,  and 
from  the  eastern  seaboard  to  the  peaks  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  in  such  localities  as  furnished 
it  with  its  favorite  sorts  of  food  and  afforded 
the  cover  in  which  it  delights.  Now,  however,  it 
is  hardly  to  be  met  with  to  the  eastward  of  West 
Virginia,  and  it  cannot  be  said  to  be  still  abun- 
dant in  Ohio,  Kentucky,  Indiana,  Michigan,  Illinois, 
etc.  In  those  States  wild  turkeys  were  once  very 
plentiful,  and  a  considerable  number  are  still  to  be 
found  in  a  few  localities  in  each.  In  Iowa,  Mis- 
souri, etc.,  there  are  more  wild  turkeys  now  than 
in  the  States  first  mentioned.  One  would  suppose 
there  must  still  be  a  few  in  the  western  parts  of 
New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  but  I  am  not  certain 
that  there  are. 

Thd  wild  turkey  is  a  bird  of  the  forest  rather 
than  of  the  prairies  or  the  plains.  It  makes  its 
haunts  in  timber-land,  large  pieces  of  woods,  and 
-groves,  and  betakes  itself  to  thick  brush  and  the 
neighborhood  of  impassable  swamps  to  breed.  It 
comes  out,  however,  at  night  or  at  earliest   dawn, 


WILD  TURKEY  AND  DEER  SHOOTING.      225 

and  feeds  in  the  corn  and  wheat  fields  in  the  fall, 
and  many  broods  are  sometimes  seen  together  in  a 
pack  a  hundred  strong,  led  by  old  gobblers.  In 
the  beech  and  maple  woods  it  feeds  upon  beech- 
nuts with  great  relish,  and,  indeed,  its  principal 
food  in  winter  is  the  berries  of  the  bushes  and 
the  "  mast "  of  various  trees.  The  wild  turkey, 
though  so  gregarious,  is  shy  and  a  wary,  fast- 
running  bird,  hardly  ever  taking  to  the  wing  if 
it  can  avoid  doing  so.  When  closely  pursued  by 
a  dog  or  impeded  by  deep  snow,  it  is  com- 
pelled to  flight. 

It  is  found  in  Illinois  in  the  timber  and  thick 
brush  to  be  met  with  on  the  banks  of  rivers  and 
creeks.  The  wild  turkeys  used  to  be  very  numer- 
ous in  and  about  the  bottoms  of  the  Sangamon 
River.  I  have  killed  a  great  many  there  myself, 
one  of  which  was  a  famous  gobbler  of  twenty- 
seven  pounds  weight  and  magnificent  plumage. 
They  are  now  scarce,  difficult  to  find,  and  hard  to 
kill.  Following  turkeys  on  their  tracks  in  snow, 
which  has  been  my  usual  method  of  hunting  them, 
is  hard  work.  In  the  great  woods  of  the  forest 
countries  tlie  favorite  method  is  to  find  the  flock, 
scatter  it  all  around  by  means  of  a  dog,  and 
then    in    ambush    imitate    the  call    of    the   turkeys 


226  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

until  they  come  near  enough  to  be  shot  Avith  a 
rifle. 

There  used  to  be  many  turkeys  in  the  tim- 
ber at  Lake  Fort,  some  seven  or  eight  miles 
from  Elkhart,  and  a  few  may  be  found  there  yet. 
In  the  woodlands  of  North  Missouri  the  wild 
turkey  is  still  rather  abundant,  and  it  will  be 
found  wherever  there  is  timber  and  brush  all 
through  Missouri,  Kansas,  Arkansas,  the  Indian 
Territory,  and  down  through  Texas.  Wild  turkeys 
are  also  found  in  .  Louisiana,  Alabama,  Georgia, 
and  Florida.  They  do  best  in  warm  weather, 
though  they  are  furnished  with  a  full  coat  of 
feathers,  and  can  stand  the  cold  of  our  northwest- 
ern  States   and   Canada. 

I  have  often  found  the  wild  turkey's  nest.  It 
is  made  in  the  timber,  among  thick  brush,  and 
very  often  by  the  side  of  an  old  log.  When 
the  hen  wild  turkey  leaves  her  nest,  she  covers 
it  up  with  leaves,  just  as  the  tame  hen- turkey 
will  do  when  she  has  made  a  nest  under  a 
hedge  or  in  the  brambles  near  a  fence.  Some 
years  ago,  when  wild  turkeys  abounded  more 
than  they  do  now,  great  numbers  of  their  eggs 
were  taken  from  their  nests  and  hatched  under 
hens.     The   young   ones    thus    obtained  were    very 


WILD  TURKEY  AND  DEER  SHOOTING.      227 

much  like  young  tame  turkeys  in  their  habits 
until  late  in  the  fail.  Then,  from  roosting  in 
trees  and  rambling  about,  they  often  left  the  tame 
turkeys,  and  went  off  with  the  wild  ones.  In 
secluded  places  the  wild  turkeys  often  mingle 
with  tame  flocks.  The  gobblers  are  not  pugna- 
cious with  each  other,  though  they  will  fight  with 
game-cocks,  and  sometimes,  by  superior  weight 
and   strength,   worry    out    and    kill    the    best. 

Formerly  I  used  to  shoot  turkeys  in  the  old 
method  of  calling  them  up,  after  having  scat- 
tered them,  to  an  ambush,  and  using  a  small- 
bore rifle  or  a  shot-gun  loaded  with  buckshot 
or  with  BB  cartridge.  That  plan  answers  best 
when  the  turkeys  are  young.  Latterly  I  have 
waited  for  turkey-shooting  until  the  winter  weather 
had  well  set  in,  and  gone  only  when  there  was 
snow  on  the  ground.  Tho  method  is  to  find  the 
tracks  of  a  flock  in  the  snow,  and  follow  them 
up.  Turkeys  in  snow,  with  a  man  following  in 
their  track,  soon  begin  to  tire  a  little,  if  the 
snow  is  damp  and  no  crust  on  the  top  of  it. 
After  some  time  the  hunter,  who  must  be  a  good 
walker  and  capable  of  standing  much  fatigue, 
will  see  where  one  of  the  turkeys  has  diverged 
from  the   route  of  the   flock.     Following  the  track 


228  FIELD    BIIOOTINO. 

of  the  single  turkey,  it  will  be  found  that  after 
having  gone  a  little  way,  commonly  not  more 
than  two  hundred  yards,  and  often  less,  it  has 
squatted  under  thick  brush  or  in  the  top  of  a 
fallen  tree.  As  he  draws  near,  it  will  start  to  run 
or  to  fly,  and  it  must  then  be  shot.  In  this  sport 
I  use  No.  1  shot,  which  is  quite  big  enough.  A 
turkey  going  to  fly  is  compelled  to  run  eight 
or  ten  feet  in  order  to  get  headway  before 
rising  from  the  ground,  and  T  have  often  shot 
them  in  the  head  before  they  could  take  wing. 
After  having  killed  his  turkey,  the  hunter  must 
take  up  the  track  of  the  flock  again,  and  go  on 
after  it  until  he  sees  that  another  has  diverged. 
As  I  remarked  before,  it  is  much  the  best  to 
follow  this  sport  when  the  snow  is  damp,  for 
the  turkeys  then  tire  the  sooner,  and  are  more 
inclined  to  hide  and  squat.  No  dog  is  to  be 
used.     He   would  be   worse   than   useless. 

Another  good  time  for  turkey- shooting  is  when 
it  is  snowing  hard.  That,  of  course,  is  no  good 
time  for  tracking;  but  while  the  snow  is  felling 
fast,  the  wild  turkeys  sit  around  in  thick  brush 
or  in  the  thick  top  of  a  fallen  tree.  They  are 
then  easily  approached  ;  but  the  hunter  must 
know    the    country    well,    and     be     familiar     with 


WILD  TURKEY  AND  DEER  SHOOTING.      229 

the  places  where  the  flocks  habitually  resort.  If 
the  hunter  does  not  know  the  country  well,  and 
is  after  turkeys  in  a  thick  snow-storm,  instead 
of  finding  them,  he  will  be  likely  enough  to  get 
lost  himself. 

When  a  flock  of  wild  turkeys  is  being  followed 
by  tracking,  they  often  take  wing;  and  there,  of 
course,  their  tracks  end.  But  they  generally  fly 
straight  ahead,  and  the  hunter  may  usually  hit 
their  new  tracks  after  they  have  alighted  and 
gone  on  again  on  foot.  Although  they  fly  straight, 
they  do  not  travel  straight  when  on  foot,  but 
sometimes  wind  in  and  out  very  much.  Com- 
monly their  tracks  will  be  found  again  within 
three  or  four  hundred  yards  of  where  they  took 
wing.  The  hunter  will  see  where  they  made  the 
quick  run  before  rising.  By  that  he  may  judge 
very  nearly  the  direction  of  their  flight,  and  fol- 
low it. 

When  there  are  creeks  and  ravines  which  tur- 
keys must  cross  on  the  wing,  they  almost  always 
go  over  at  the  same  places.  In  such  a  case  as  a 
creek  running  across  a  narrow  belt  of  timber,  or 
a  ravine  intersecting  it,  advantage  may  be  taken 
of  this  habit  of  the  turkeys.  There  must  be  two 
hunters.      One  must    post    himself  at   the  crossing 


230  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

under  cover,  and  the  other  go  three  or  four  miles 
up,  and  drive  the  wood  down  to  it.  If  there  are 
any  turkeys  in  the  upper  part  of  the  timber,  the 
man  at  the  crossing  will  be  certain  to  have  a 
good  shot  or  two. 

When  I  first  lived  in  Illinois,  I  used  to  hunt 
turkeys  a  good  deal  on  the  Sangamon,  in  the 
right  kind  of  weather,  generally  preferring  soft 
snow  or  a  fast-falling  snow-storm.  I  generally 
killed  some  turkeys — some  days  only  two,  on 
others  three,  four,  five,  and  six,  and  a  few  times 
as  many  as  seven.  One  day  I  was  tracking 
turkeys  in  only  about  three  inches  of  snow. 
They  did  not  tire,  but  travelled  fast,  and  some- 
times took  flight,  so  that  following  them  was  a 
weary  business.  I  had  been  after  them  nearly 
all  day,  and  was  nearly  "  tuckered  out."  I  had 
often  been  in  sight  of  them,  but  never  near 
enough  for  a  shot.  But  as  evening  drew  on 
apace,  and  roosting-time  approached,  the  turkeys 
began  to  call.  They  had  travelled  all  day,  and 
were  glad  to  halt  where  they  were.  By  wait- 
ing and  stalking  between  calls  I  shot  four. 
They  weighed  from  twelve  to  eighteen  pounds 
each,  and  I  had  to  carry  them  and  my  gun 
three  miles   to  get   to   a   house.      It   was   a  very 


WILD  TURKEY  AND  DEER  SHOOTING.      231 

hard  day's  work,  and  nothing  but  downright 
perseverance  enabled  me  to  get  any  turkeys  at 
all  on  that  occasion.  When  the  going  is  good, 
a  flock  of  turkeys  will  beat  a  man  by  endurance. 
They  are  great  ramblers  in  the  daytime,  but 
nearly  always  come  back  to  the  same  roosting- 
place  at  night. 

On  another  occasion  I  was  out  after  turkeys 
on  the  Sangamon  on  a  thick,  snowy  day — just 
the  sort  of  day  for  a  man  to  get  lost  in  tim- 
ber and  a  wild,  broken  country.  I.  then  lived 
seven  miles  from  Petersburg,  and  in  following 
the  turkeys  round  bluffs  and  across  barrens  on 
the  edge  of  the  timber  I  was  several  times  in 
sight  of  that  place.  Still  the  tracks  went  on 
winding  about  until  they  led  to  a  place  where 
there  seemed  to  be  some  every  way.  There 
were  others  besides  myself  hunting  turkeys  in 
that  timber,  and  we  sometimes  took  the  tracks 
ahead  of  each  other.  It  was  then  snowing 
rather  fast,  and  of  course  the  tracks  were  all 
fresh.  The  flock  I  was  on  tired  in  the  after- 
noon, and  I  killed  two  about  four  o'clock.  I 
then  found  I  was  lost.  It  was  still  snowing, 
and  night  was  coming  on.  The  first  thing  to 
be   done   was   to   keep   on    as    fast   as   I   could   in 


232  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

one  direction,  so  as  to  get  out  of  the  timber. 
The  turkeys  I  had  killed  were  very  large  ones 
— twenty  pounds  each.  However,  I  trudged  along 
through  the  snow,  and  at  last  got  clear  of  the 
woods,  and  found  out  where  I  was.  It  was  not, 
however,  as  I  had  expected,  between  Petersburg 
and  where  I  lived,  but  at  Indian  Point,  from 
which  I  had  a  walk  of  thirteen  miles  home.  I 
do  not  think  I  ever  was  more  tired  than  I  was 
that  night  when  I  reached  home.  Travelling  in 
snow  is  not  easy  walking,  and  tracking  turkeys 
in   it   is   emphatically   hard   work. 

I  went  out  one  day  to  hunt  wild  turkeys  near 
the  mouth  of  Salt  Creek  in  seven  or  eight  inches 
of  wet  snow,  the  weather  being  mild  and  the  frost 
giving,  so  that  the  snow  packed.  I  came  upon 
the  tracks  of  a  flock  of  turkeys,  and,  after  fol- 
lowing them  for  some  time,  I  killed  two.  Tak- 
ing up  the  main  trail  again,  I  noticed  the  track 
of  one  very  large  turkey,  a  real  great  gobbler.  I 
had  heard  other  men  speak  of  having  been  on  the 
track  of  a  very  large  turkey  about  there,  but  none 
of  them  had  ever  been  able  to  come  up  with 
him,  though  they  had  killed  others  out  of  the 
flock  he  led.  I  now  determined  to  do  my  best  to 
get  him,  and  resolved  not  to  go  off"  after  stragglers, 


"WILD    TURKEY    AND    DEER    SHOOTING.  233 

unless  he  left  the  route  of  the  flock  himself.  1 
followed  the  track,  winding  through  brush,  and 
sometimes  went  across  very  rough  ground — over 
which  the  turkeys  flew — for  as  much  as  ten  miles ; 
but  in  the  timber  of  the  bottom  I  was  imable 
to  come  up  to  the  gobbler.  The  other  turkeys 
in  the  flock  appeared  to  have  straggled  off",  and 
the  old,  wily  gobbler,  often  hunted  and  very  fast, 
and  strong  as  well  as  large,  was  alone.  At  last 
he  left  the  bottoms,  and  the  trail  led  up  into 
bluffs  and  ravines  where  the  brush  was  very 
thick  and  the  snow  in  places  quite  deep.  I  think 
many  men  would  have  given  it  up  then,  for  the 
ground  was  extremely  difficult  to  enter  into  after 
the  ten-mile  tramp  from  where  I  had  struck  the . 
trail  first,  but  I  determined  to  persevere.  In  fact, 
I  had  now  strong  hopes  of  getting  the  turkey, 
being  convinced  that  he  would  not  have  entered 
this  ground  if  he  had  not  been  tired.  After  go- 
ing some  distance  among  the  bluffs  and  thickets 
of  the  ravines,  the  gobbler  squatted  under  an  old 
tree-top.  He  would  be  dead  beat  and  want  rest 
sorely  before  ho  would  do  that,  I  knew ;  still,  I 
looked  for  him  to  appear  at  any  moment  from 
somo  such  jilacc,  and  kept  my  gun  ready,  both 
locks    cocked.     lie    would   set   wind   ajjain  while  J 


234  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

was  coming  up  on  his  track,  and  be  ready  for  a 
quick  bolt.  As  1  advanced  on  the  trail,  I  heaid 
a  movement  among  the  top  brush  of  a  fallen 
tree,  and  out  went  the  turkey.  He  was  probably 
sixty  yards  away  from  me  when  I  saw  him  so 
as  to  shoot,  but  I  took  a  long  shot,  and  hit  him 
hard  with  the  right  barrel,  following  it  with  the 
left  instanter  to  make  sure  work.  I  think  the 
first  barrel  would  have  been  enough,  but  I  was 
very  anxious  to  get  him ;  and  as  I  knew  that  if 
he  was  only  winged  he  would  run  UEtil  he 
dropped  dead,  I  gave  him  the  second  barrel.  He 
was  the  most  splendid  specimen  of  the  wild  tur- 
key I  ever  saw,  and  I  have  seen  a  great  many. 
He  weighed  twenty-seven  pounds,  was  quite  fat, 
and  the  beard — the  tuft  of  hair  which  hangs  from 
the  breast — was  eight  inches  long.  The  beauty 
of  his  plumage  on  the  neck,  wings,  and  breast 
is  indescribable.  It  glittered  with  a  score  of  hues 
of  metallic  lustre — gold,  green,  purple,  brown,  etc. — 
and  these  tints  cast  rays  like  those  which  flash 
from  the  feathers  of  the  humming-bird. 

It  was  in  the  belt  of  timber  in  which  this 
gobbler  was  found  that  I  then  lived.  On  two 
occasions  there  I  shot  at  a  turkey  on  the  wing 
with     a    rifle,    when     out     after     deer,   and     killed. 


WILD    TURKEY    AND    DEER    SHOOTING.  235 

When  turkeys  are  too  wild  to  be  shot  with 
a  shot-gun,  it  is  of  little  use  to  track  them  at 
all.  Resort  must  then  be  had  to  the  method  of 
calling  them  up,  and  here  the  rifle  may  be  used. 
Except  for  very  long  shots,  however,  the  shot- 
gun is  as  good  as  the  rifle,  even  when  the  tur- 
keys are  called  up  within  distance  of  the  shooter, 
and  in  one  important  matter  better — there  are 
two  barrels  to  one,  and  a  miss  may  be  mended 
with  the  second. 

The  best  day  of  turkey -shooting  I  ever  had  was  in 
Missouri,  on  Shoal  Creek,  not  a  great  distance  from 
the  town  of  St.  Jo,  on  the  Missouri  River.  I  went 
to  that  quarter  on  a  regular  shooting  expedition, 
prepared  to  stay  some  time.  John  D.  Lindsay, 
an  old  hunter,  went  first  in  order  to  look  about 
the  neighborhood  around  St.  Jo,  and  ascertain 
what  the  prospects  were.  He  wrote  to  me  that 
there  were  plenty  of  wild  turkeys,  deer,  and  other 
game  in  the  region  round  about  Cameron,  Lynn 
County,  and  desired  me  to  join  him.  I  lost  no 
time  in  doing  so,  and  was  accompanied  by  Colonel 
Roberts,  who  wanted  to  camp  out.  We  took  my 
tent.  Arriving  at  Cameron  in  the  morning,  I  hired 
a  team.  We  took  the  tent  and  other  things  out 
to  a  suitable  spot  about  three  or    four  miles  from 


236  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

the  town,  and  there  prepared  to  camp.  We  pitch- 
ed our  tent  on  a  creek  bottom,  near  enough  to 
the  bank  to  make  it  handy  to  get  water,  and  at 
the  foot  of  a  hill  covered  with  scrub-oak.  In 
selecting  a  place  for  a  camp  in  cold  w^eather 
the  main  things  to  look  after  are  shelter 
from  the  northwest  winds  and  close  prox- 
imity to  wood  and  water.  I  had  no  camp-stove 
then,  and  it  was  necessary  to  keep  up  a  big 
fire  near  the  mouth  of  the  tent  all  night,  so  that 
plenty  of  wood  Avas  required.  The  country  for 
miles  around  was  successive  hills  and  hollows, 
with  scrub-timber  in  places  and  much  brush, 
called  barrens.  Having  pitched  the  tent  and 
plied  our  axes  for  wood,  Lindsay  and  1  left 
Colonel  Roberts  to  put  things  to  rights,  took  our 
guns,  and  went  to  look  about  a  little.  In  less  than 
half  an  hour  1  killed  two  turkeys.  This  was  a  good 
beginning. 

We  returned  to  the  tent,  where  Colonel  Roberts 
speedily  distinguished  himself  as  a  capital  cook. 
Having  picked  and  cleaned  a  turkey,  he  desired 
me  to  put  up  two  short  stakes  with  forks  at  the 
upper  ends  pretty  close  to  the  fire,  while  Lind- 
say was  required  to  furnish  a  thin,  straight  stick. 
With  this  last  the  colonel  spitted  the  turkey,  and 


WILD  TURKEY  AND  DEER  SHOOTING.      237 

the  ends  of  the  spit  being  laid  in  the  crutches  of 
the  uprights,  the  bird  could  be  turned  slowly 
before  the  fire  with  little  trouble.  A  pan  placed 
beneath  caught  the  gravy  and  dripping,  and  with 
this  the  turkey  was  basted  from  time  to  time. 
It  was  a  most  excellent  roast,  and  a  wild  turkey 
cooked  in  this  way  before  a  big,  quick  fire 
beats  one  that  is  baked  in  an  oven  all  hollow. 
We  feasted  well  that  evening,  but  in  the  night 
we  rather  suffered,  as  I  shall  relate. 

We  had  to  rely  on  a  large  fire  in  front  of 
the  tent  for  warmth,  as  I  had  then  no  tent-stove. 
Of  late  years  I  have  always  been  provided  with  a 
small,  cheap  stove  and  pipe,  which  could  be  put 
up  inside.  The  tent  being  then  closed  all  round, 
and  a  small  fire  kept  up  in  the  stove  with  hard 
wood,  it  is  as  warm  inside  as  in  a  house.  Such 
a  plan  is  much  better  for  convenience  and  com- 
fort than  my  old  system.  The  fire  in  front  of 
the  tent  has  to  be  eight  or  ten  feet  off,  for  fear 
that  the  canvas  may  take  fire  if  it  is  nearer, 
and  on  a  cold  night  it  does  not  do  much  good. 
In  Missouri  at  that  time  the  nights  were  very 
cold.  Wc  had  to  lie  Avith  our  heads  under  the 
blankets  to  keep  our  ears  from  being  frozen.  In 
the  morning  our  boots  were  as  stiff  as  if  they  had 


238  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

been  made  of  iron  instead  of  leather.     We  hunted 
every  day  with  more  or  less  success. 

In  a  few  days  there  came  a  fresh  fall  of  snow, 
some  seven  or  eight  inches,  and  Lindsay  and  I 
went  out  prepared  to  take  advantage  of  it.  We 
breakfasted  at  break  of  day,  and  set  out  for  Shoal 
Creek,  which  was  three  miles  distant.  It  quit 
snowing  as  soon  as  it  got  to  be  daylight,  so  that 
when  we  reached  the  banks  of  the  creek  the 
tracks,  if  any  were  found,  would  be  fresh.  About 
eight  o'clock  in  the  morning  we  came  upon  the 
trail  of  a  large  flock  of  turkeys.  They  had  begun 
to  move  about  as  soon  as  it  left  off  snowing,  and 
there  must  have  been  from  thirty-five  to  forty, 
perhaps  more  than  forty,  in  the  flock.  After  fol- 
lowing the  track  for  a  while  I  got  sight  of  the 
flock,  crept  up  within  distance,  and  killed  two, 
one  with  each  barrel.  The  turkeys  thereupon 
scattered  and  flew,  and  some  passing  near  Lind- 
say, he  killed  one  on  the  wing.  Neither  of  us 
shot  with  a  rifle.  Those  turkeys  had  not  been 
shot  at  much,  and  they  were  nothing  like  as  wild 
as  those  of  Illinois.  It  was  the  best  turkey-shoot- 
ing I  ever  saw.  We  followed  up  the  main  body, 
and  every  now  and  then  I  would  go  after  a  strag- 
gler   who   had   left    it,    and    shoot   him    as    he   left 


"WILD    TURKET    AND    DSER    SHOOTING.  239 

his  squatting-place.  At  noon  1  had  killed  eleven 
turkeys  and  Lindsay  three,  I  got  the  most  shots, 
as  I  went  after  the  stragglers,  while  he  kept  on 
the  track  of  the  flock.  The  turkeys  weighed  from 
ten  to  eighteen  pounds  each.  They  were  not  quite 
so  fat  as  our  Illinois  turkeys  commonly  are,  hut 
their  flavor  was  delicious,  and  their  flesh  very  ten- 
der and  juicy — just  what  that  of  a  wild  turkey  in 
perfection  is. 

We  placed  our  turkeys  safe  hung  in  a  tree, 
and,  going  to  a  house,  got  dinner,  arranging 
with  the  man  that  he  should  take  us  and  our 
game  to  our  camp  in  the  evening  with  his  wagon 
and  team.  Deer  were  plentiful  thereabout.  In 
the  afternoon  I  shot  at  a  big  buck  with  turkey- 
shot,  and  hit  him  hard.  He  bled  freely  as  he 
ran,  and  we  followed  on  his  trail.  That  pre- 
vented us  from  getting  any  more  turkeys  that 
day.  We  kept  on  the  buck's  track  for  a  long 
distance,  hoping  to  get  another  shot  at  him. 
We  could  not  do  so,  however,  and  the  trail 
finally  led  to  a  place  where  there  had  been  such 
a  number  of  deer  that  day  that  their  tracks 
were  all  mixed  up.  We  saw  three  going  over 
the  brow  of  a  hill,  but  they  were  far  out  of 
shot.     So    we   concluded    to   give  up  further   exer- 


240  FIELD   SHOOTINGF, 

tions,  and,  returning  to  the  house,  we  found  the 
man  and  his  team  ready.  On  our  road  to  camp 
we  took  up  our  turkeys,  and  ended  a  busy  day 
with  a  capital  supper  by  the  blazing  fire.  It 
was  the  best  day's  turkey -shooting  I  ever  had, 
and  we  could  have  got  more  of  them  if  we  had 
not  been  led  off  on  a  fruitless  chase  after  the 
deer.  With  breech-loading  guns  and  buckshot 
cartridges  in  the  left  barrels  for  deer,  we  could 
have  got  several  fat  ones,  as  well  as  the  tur- 
keys. 

In  the  three  weeks  we  were  in  camp  at 
Shoal  Creek  we  shot  between  fifty  and  sixty 
turkeys,  not  going  for  them  especially,  except  on 
favorable  days,  when  fresh  snow  had  fallen. 
Our  sport  in  this  neighborhood  was  good  in 
every  respect,  but  in  one  regard  we  had  great 
discomfort.  The  weather  was  hard,  and  we 
were  very  cold  at  night.  Young  sportsmen  Avill 
sometimes  read  descriptions  in  which  the  writers 
say  that  they  slept  out  all  night  without  a  tent, 
the  thermometer  below  zero,  and  that  wrapped 
in  their  blankets,  with  their  feet  to  the  fire, 
they  were  very  comfortable.  In  my  opinion 
this  is  all  humbug.  1  have  been  out  many  a 
night,    but    it    was    in    moderately    warm   weather. 


WILD  TURKEY  AND  DEER  SHOOTING.      241 

The  thing  to  be  most  apprehensive  about  then 
is    a   thunder-storm. 

I  was  once  caught  in  one  in  the  middle  of 
the  night,  early  in  the  fall,  on  the  Delavan 
Prairie,  which  is  in  Logan  County,  sixteen  miles 
from  Elkhart,  The  unbroken  prairie  Avas  then 
eight  or  ten  miles  in  extent.  In  fact,  there  was 
no  cultivated  land  on  it,  except  near  the  strips 
of  timber  by  which  it  was  bounded.  I  went 
out  in  a  buggy,  and  alone,  to  shoot  pinnated 
grouse  in  the  evening,  and  though  I  meant  to 
stay  on  the  prairie  all  night,  and  shoot  again 
in  the  morning,  I  took  no  tent.  A  blanket  to 
lay  on  the  ground  under  the  buggy,  and  another 
to  cover  jnc,  were  deemed  sufficient. 

I  shot  until  dark  over  two  good  dogs,  and 
liud  fine  sport.  I  then  drove  to  a  part  of  the 
prairie  whore  men  had  been  cutting  grass  for 
fodder,  and  left  it  in  cocks,  and  pulled  up  there 
for  the  night.  I  tied  the  horse  to  the  wheel,  gave 
him  a  feed  of  corn  in  the  bottom  of  the  buggy, 
watered  him,  and  tossed  him  down  a  lot  of  the 
new-made  prairie-hay.  The  scent  of  it  pervaded 
the  air  of  the  space  all  around,  and  was  very 
sweet  and  grateful.  I  got  my  own  cold  supper, 
and,  lying  down    \mder    the    buggy  with    the    dogs 


242  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

near  me,  1  soon  fell  asleep.  It  was  a  still  night, 
no  air  stirring  even  on  the  open  prairie  where  I 
was  when  I  went  to  rest.  But  about  one  o'clock 
there  arose  a  strong  wind,  the  forerunner  of  a 
mighty  storm. 

Awakened  by  the  change  in  the  weather,  I  got 
up,  and,  looking  to  windward,  saw  an  immense 
black  cloud  looriiing  high  up  towards  the  zenith, 
and  coming  on  at  a  rapid  rate  towards  the  prairie. 
Knowing  very  well  what  it  meant,  and  seeing  the 
forked  lightning  already  darting  down  from  it, 
while  the  rumble  of  the  distant  thunder  overbore 
the  rushing  of  the  wind,  I  piled  up  a  lot  of  hay 
around  the  buggy  to  windward,  and  got  under  it 
again.  1  had  not  been  there  many  minutes  when 
the  storm  burst  with  fearful  fury,  seemingly  right 
over  my  head.  Then  came  lightning,  thunder,  and 
torrents  of  rain  altogether,  as  it  were.  The  light- 
ning was  so  vivid  and  so  rapid  that  the  horse 
got  scared  and  trembled,  the  dogs  cowered  and 
crept  closer  to  me,  and  I  was  much  alarmed.  The 
lightning  ran  round  the  tires  of  the  wheels,  so 
that  the  wagon  seemed  to  be  shod  with  fire.  It 
lit  up  the  prairie  at  every  flash,  and  the  flashes 
were  almost  continuous,  so  that  I  could  see 
white   houses   five    or    six    miles    off    as   plain,    or 


WILD  TURKEY  AND  DEER  SHOOTING.      243 

plainer,  than  I  could  by  day.  The  thunder-claps 
were  so  heavy  that  it  appeared  as  if  they  would 
split  my  head  open.  For  more  than  an  hour 
the  storm  kept  on.  Then  it  abated  almost  as 
suddenly  as  it  came,  and  I  soon  went  to  sleep 
again.  This  was  the  heaviest  thunder-storm  I  ever 
experienced.  1  was  more  in  fear  during  that  hour 
than  1  ever  was  before,  or  than  I  have  been  since. 
What  with  the  horse  and  the  dogs  and  myself 
altogether  in  a  group,  the  bright  tires  of  the  wheels, 
and  the  steel  locks  and  barrels  of  my  gun,  the 
danger  must  have  been  great.  But,  blessed  be 
God,  it  was  averted  ! 

In  the  morning  the  dogs  rose  refreshed,  as  I  did 
myself.  They  worked  well.  The  scent  lay  thick 
on  the  wet  ground,  and  I  never  shot  better.  1 
killed  forty-three  grouse  before  the  sun  got  very 
high  in  the  forenoon,  and  returned  home  with  a 
large  bag  of  very  fine  birds. 

When  men  camp  out  with  a  tent  without  a 
stove,  and  they  keep  a  large  fire  in  front  of  the 
tent,  as  they  will  be  sure  to  do  in  cold  weather, 
there  is  considerable  danger  that  their  canvas 
may  take  fire.  I  have  had  three  tents  burned  up. 
A  change  of  wind  during  the  night  may  blow 
glowing    embers    right  up   to   the   canvas,  and   set 


244  FIELD    SHOOTIKG. 

fire  to  it,  if  no  one  is  awake  to  look  after  it.  And 
twice  my  tent  caught  fire  in  the  daytime,  when 
we  thought  there  was  no  danger,  and  went  off 
hunting  with  no  one  left  at  camp.  Therefore  I 
say  to  every  one  who  means  to  camp  out  on 
sporting  excursions,  get  a  nice  little  stove.  The 
cost  is  small,  the  comfort  large,  and,  except  through 
gross  carelessness,  there  can  be  no  danger  what- 
ever. 

To  give  a  description  of  the  common  deer  of 
this  country  would  be  mere  folly  and  imperti- 
nence. It  is  often  supposed  that  it  likes  best  to 
range  in  the  vast  forests,  but  I  believe  that  to  be 
a  mistake.  Deer  are  most  fond  of  a  country  in 
which  there  are  belts  of  timber-land  and  brush 
interspersed  with  prairies  and  savannas.  Much 
of  that  part  of  Illinois  where  I  lived  at  first  is 
somewhat  of  that  character.  When  I  first  went 
to  the  State,  deer  were  o^cceedingly  plentiful.  I 
have  myself  seen  as  many  as  thirty  in  a  herd,  and 
men  who  had  lived  a  long  time  in  that  part  of 
Illinois,  when  I  went  to  reside  there,  told  me  they 
had  seen  herds  which  could  not  have  contained 
less  than  seventy-five.  In  the  cold  weather  the 
deer  went  to  the  timber  for  shelter.  In  the  warm 
weather   they   did  not   go   much   to   the   woodland 


WILD    TURKEr    AND    DEER    SHOOTING.  245 

to  pass  the  heat  of  the  day,  as  oue  might  have 
well  supposed  they  would,  but  they  spent  some 
hours  before  and  after  noonday  lying  in  the  long 
grass  of  the  prairie  near  sloughs,  where  it  grows 
particularly  rank  and  tall. 

Deer  have  much  decreased  in  number  in  that 
part  of  Illinois  of  late  years,  though  they  may 
still  be  met  with  occasionally,  and  shot  by  a  man 
Asho  knows  how  to  go  about  it.  In  the  earlier 
times  of  my  residence  in  the  State  they  used  to 
feed  upon  the  young  wheat,  where  fall  wheat  had 
been  sowed  out  upon  the  prairie.  At  about  sun- 
rise •  they  might  be  seen  feeding  in  these  fields, 
and  looking  like  so  many  calves.  When  it  was 
broad  daylight,  they  retired  to  the  long  grass  near 
the  sloughs,  or  to  thick  brush  in  the  woodland, 
or  to  patches  of  high  weeds,  and  there  they  would 
lie  until  evening.  There  arc  some  deer  in  Ford 
County  yet.  Three  or  fcnir  were  killed  there 
last  winter — two  of  them  on  Mr.  Sullivan t's  form. 
Another  was  chased  right  through  the  town  of 
Gibson,  and  killed  below  it.  At  Oliver's  Grove, 
ill  Iroquois  County,  there  used  to  be  large  numbers 
of  deer,  and  some  may  be  found  there  yet.  la 
the  southern  jjart  of  Illinois,  down  toward  and 
in   the    district   called    Egypt,   deer    are    found    in 


246  FIELD    SHOOTING 

fair  numbers.  But  the  best  place  near  Illinois  in 
which  to  hunt  them  is  the  northern  part  of  Mis- 
souri. Deer  are  numerous  in  parts  of  Kansas, 
and  about  Omaha,  Nebraslca,  there  are  many  to 
be  found. 

This  last-named  city  is  a  good  point  for  sport- 
ing tourists ;  various  descriptions  of  game  abound, 
and  the  shooting  club  includes  many  excellent 
sportsmen  and  gentlemen  among  its  members. 
The  best  place  in  the  city  to  obtain  information 
as  to  localities  and  to  meet  sportsmen  is  the  store 
of  Mr.  D.  C.  Sutphen,  gunmaker  and  dealer. 
And  a  very  good  place  to  stop  at,  as  I  found  by 
personal  experience,  is  the  Grand  Central  Hotel. 
Wild  turkeys,  deer,  pinnated  grouse,  wild  geese, 
ducks,   etc.,  may  be  shot  in  the  vicinity  of  Omaha. 

The  first  deer  I  ever  killed  was  in  Woodford 
County,  Illinois.  I  was  out  with  an  old  hunter, 
who  set  me  to  follow  the  track  of  the  herd, 
and  took  post  himself  at  a  nmway,  where  he 
thought  he  should  be  sure  to  get  a  good  shot. 
But  it  did  not  so  fall  out.  I  followed  a  herd  of 
five  or  six  for  about  three  miles,  and  on  coming 
to  the  top  of  a  hill  I  saw  a  deer  in  the  val- 
ley below,  standing  on  the  edge  of  the  slope, 
with   its   side   to   me.      He   was    about    two   hun- 


WILD  TURKEY  AND  DEER  SHOOTING.      247 

dred  yards  off,  but  I  determined  to  have  a 
crack  at  him,  and,  throwing  my  rifle  up,  1  took 
aim  just  behind  the  lower  part  of  the  shoulder. 
Mine  was  an  old-fashioned,  long,  hunting-rifle, 
with  steel  barrel,  carrying  a  ball  forty  to  the 
pound.  At  the  shot  the  deer  made  a  buck-jump 
full  ten  feet  into  the  air,  and  bounded  away.  I 
thought  1  had  missed  him,  but  my  partner,  on 
coming  to  the  spot  where  he  had  stood,  and  looking 
narrowly  around,  thought  not,  and  determined  to 
follow  his  tracks.  The  fact  was,  as  he  told  me 
soon  afterwards,  that  he  saw  a  tinge  of  blood 
upon  the  snow  on  the  other  side  of  the  place 
where  the  deer  had  stood  when  I  shot  at  him, 
and  concluded  that  the  ball  had  gone  through 
him.  He  soon  found  that  the  deer  straddled  in 
his  tracks  and  spread  his  hoofs,  and  then  he 
knew  he  was  badly  wounded.  The  buck  was 
found  dead  two  hundred  yards  from  where  he 
was  when  1  shot  at  him.  The  ball  had  gone 
clean  through  him,  and  also  through  his  heart, 
after  which  he  ran  two  hundred  yards.  I  did 
not  hunt  deer  much  at  that  time,  but  I  was 
soon  a  good  shot  with  the  rifle,  and  have  killed 
a   running   deer   with   it. 

I   afterwards     became    acquainted   with    a    man 


248  FIELD   8H00TINO. 

named  Wilcox,  who  was  the  greatest  deer-hunter 
in  Illinois.  He  had  a  system  of  his  own,  and  a 
very  successful  system  it  certainly  was,  as  he 
managed  it.  He  hunted  on  horseback,  and  his 
weapon  was  a  heavy  double-barrelled  shot-gun, 
with  strong  charges  of  powder  and  buckshot. 
Late  in  the  fall,  when  the  sloughs  were  low  and 
held  but  little  water,  he  used  to  ride  down  the 
middle  of  them.  When  a  deer  got  up  from 
among  the  long  grass  on  either  side,  Wilcox 
fired  from  the  back  of  the  horse,  and  knocked  the 
buck  or  doe  over.  I  soon  found  that  was  the  best 
way,  and  adopted  it  myself,  but  I  never  had  as 
much  success  at  it  as  Wilcox  did.  The  trouble 
was  that  1  could  neither  get  a  really  steady  horse 
under  fire  nor  shoot  very  well  on  horseback  at 
that  time.  The  horse  Wilcox  used  in  his  hunts 
had  been  accustomed  to  it  so  long  that  he  knew 
just  what  was  wanted,  and  when  the  reins  were 
dropped  he  stood  like  a  rock  until  the  gun 
went  off. 

When  deer  are  lying  down,  it  is  much  easier  to 
approach  their  lair,  so  as  to  get  a  shot  on  their 
rising,  on  horseback  than  on  foot.  It  is  now  obso- 
lete in  our  part  of  Illinois,  as  there  are  no  deer 
to  shoot ;    but    I  should  think  it  might   be  followed 


WILD  TURKEY  AND  DEER  SHOOTING.      249 

to  advantage  in  Alabama,  Louisiana,  Texas,  and 
Arkansas,  where  there  are  still  plenty.  It  should 
also  be  tried  in  Missouri,  Kansas,  Nebraska,  etc. 
Even  in  barrens  and  timber-land  it  would  be 
better  to  hunt  deer  in  this  way  than  to  still 
hunt  for  them  on  foot,  if  the  ground  is  prac- 
ticable for  a  horse.  In  some  rugged  places  a 
horse  cannot  go ;  and  in  wet  marshes,  morasses, 
and  shaking  bogs  a  horse  with  a  man  on  his 
back  would  sink  in  and  be  unable  to  struggle 
out.  In  Missouri  deer  are  generally  driven  with 
hounds,  and  shot  at  crossing-places  and  runways. 
There  are  also  many  killed  by  still  hunting. 

To  have  any  chance  of  success  in  deer-hunt- 
ing, it  is  necessary  that  the  sportsman  should 
know  the  lay  of  the  country  and  the  places  in 
which  they  are  likely  to  be  found.  A  stranger 
to  the  neighborhood  had  better  get  an  old  hunter, 
to  go  out  with  him  for  a  few  days.  A  know- 
ledge of  their  habits  in  the  different  localities  is 
required,  and  it  would  take  a  long  time  to  learp 
these  if  they  were  not  imparted  by  some  one 
who  knows  them.  The  deer  are  now  Avild  and 
shy  in  most  places.  They  have  a  keen  nose,  and 
can  scent  a  man  to  windward  before  he  can  see 
them,    which   makes   it   requisite  tQ   huot  up-wind. 


250  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

\ 

Some  deer  are  shot  at  salt-licks,  to  which  they 
resort  at  night,  and  1  believe  the  practice  of  fire- 
hunting  is  sometimes  followed  in  the  south.  It 
is  not  pursued   in   the   West. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE  ART  OF  SHOOTING  ON  THE  WING. 

The  practical  art  of  shooting  birds  on  the  wing, 
valuable  accomplishment  as  it  is,  delightful  in 
itself,  and  highly  conducive  to  health  and  strength 
by  leading  to  vigorous  exercise  in  the  fields,  is 
readily  acquired.  Any  one  who  is  well  enough  to 
walk  abroad  and  carry  a  gun  may  attain  fair  pro- 
ficiency in  it;  for  those  whose  nervous  tempera- 
ment prevents  this  are  few  indeed,  and  need  not 
be  taken  into  account.  Some  men,  indeed,  have 
a  natural  gift,  by  means  of  which,,  with  the  great 
practice  such  gift  and  its  corresponding  inclination 
are  sure  to  induce,  they  become  dead  shots,  the 
masters  of  the  art  of  shooting.  Still,  there  are 
very  few  who  may  not  become  good  shots  if  they 
follow  proper  methods  and  practice  much  in  pur- 
suance of  wise  instructions.  To  begin  at  an  early 
age  is  a  good  thing.  Many  boys  can  shoot  as 
well  as  men,  allowing  for  the  smaller  practice  and 
shorter  experience  they  have  had.  The  parents 
of  some   youths   are    disinclined   to   let  them  have 

251 


252  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

guns  for  fear  of  accidents,  but  there  is  no  ground 
for  apprehension  on  this  point.  The  handling  of 
the  gun  prevents  accidents  with  guns,  instead  of 
causing  them.  In  those  cases  we  hear  of  in  which 
thoughtless  persons  shoot  their  friends  accidentally, 
it  will  be  found  in  nineteen  cases  out  of  twenty 
that  the  gun  was  not  in  the  hands  of  a  boy  or 
young  man  who  shoots  in  the  field,  but  in  those 
of  one  who  only  knows  a  gun  by  sight,  and  is 
wholly  unacquainted  with  the  proper  management 
of  it.  It  is  a  million  to  one  that  a  boy  who  shoots, 
or  is  learning  to  shoot,  will  never  shoot  one  of  his 
sisters  or  friends.  Such  things  are  only  done  by 
those  who  have  nothing  to  do  with  firearms  in 
their  proper  places.  The  latter  have  an  idea  that 
they  will  kill,  but  they  hardly  know  how.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  shooter  sees  execution  done  by 
his  gun  on  birds,  and,  knowing  that  there  is  death 
in  the  barrel,  never  fools  about  with  it,  letting  the 
muzzle  cover  people.  Therefore  I  say  that  wher- 
ever there  is  convenience  for  it  parents  should 
let  their  sons  learn  to  shoot,  and  they  need  not 
be  afraid  to  do  so  because  their  boys  are  com- 
paratively young.  There  is  no  more  danger  of  a 
gun,  to  himself  or  other  persons,  in  the  hands  of 
a  boy  of  fourteen   years  of  age,   than  there  is  of 


THE  ART  OF  SHOdTING  ON  THE  WING.     253 

one  in  the  hands  of  a  young  man  of  twenty  who 
is  equally  new  to  the  practice  of  shooting.  The 
"boys  must  begin  some  time,  if  they  are  to  shoot 
at  all,  and  to  put  it  off  reminds  one  of  the  mother 
who  declared  that  her  son  must  not  go  into  the 
water  until  he  had  learned  to  swim. 

I  now  purpose  to  give  such  brief  instructions 
to  beginners  in  shooting  and  young  sportsmen, 
together  with  hints  which  may  be  taken  advan- 
tage of  by  marksmen  of  experience,  as  I  believe 
will  be  useful.  Two  of  the  things  essential  to 
success  in  the  field  are  the  loading  of  the  gun 
for  the  different  varieties  of  game,  and  its  hand- 
ling when  game  is  found  and  takes  wing.  It  is 
a  common  error  to  use  shot  of  a  size  larger  than 
necessary,  and  very  often  there  is  too  much  of  it. 
A  timid  man  is  afraid  to  put  in  plenty  of  pow- 
der, of  which  there  can  hardly  be  too  much  as 
long  as  the  gun  will  burn  it,  and  he  increases 
the  charge  of  shot  under  the  strange  delusion 
that  he  thus  compensates  for  the  deficiency  of 
the  explosive  part  of  the  charge.  A  gun  badly 
loaded  is  like  a  bad  watch — it  deceives  and  mor- 
tifies its  owner. 

The  choice  of  guns  has  been  already  alluded 
to,  and,  I   repeat,   beware   of  choosing   one   that  is 


251:  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

very  light.  In  a,  gun  of  more  weight  the  capa- 
city of  shooting  strong  charges  with  ease  and 
comfort,  and  of  killing  more  game,  altogether  out- 
weighs the  carrying  of  an  extra  pound  or  pound 
and  a  half.  Boys,  it  is  true,  must  have  light 
guns,  and  there  are  very  nice,  safe,  good-shoot- 
ing guns  made  for  boys.  In  choosing  one  for  your 
son  or  nephew,  however,  do  not  choose  a  light 
gun  of  those  made  for  boys.  It  is  not  to  be  a 
sort  of  handsome  toy-gun,  but  a  serviceable  arti- 
cle, such  as  will  inspire  the  boy  with  the  confi- 
dence which  begets  success  and  leads  to  skill,  by 
hitting  and  killing  whenever  it  is  held  right.  The 
light  single-barrelled  guns  made  for  boys  do  not 
amount  to  much.  It  will  be  better,  in  buying  a 
gun  for  a  youth  who  has  not  had  one  before,  to 
pay  more  money  and  purchase  a  breech-loader,  sin- 
gle-barrel if  he  is  young  and  not  strong,  but  a 
double-barrel  if  he  is  fifteen  years  old  and  fairly 
robust.  Generally  the  height  of  the  youth  is  not 
to  be  taken  into  account  in  this  matter.  Many 
boys  who  are  not  tall  for  their  age  have  more 
strength  and  endurance  than  those  who  are.  A 
breech-loader  is  much  more  easily  loaded  and  a 
great  deal  safer  than  a  muzzle-loader,  as  regards 
accidents,  in  the  hands  of  either  man  or  boy. 


THE  ART  OF  SHOOTING  ON  THE  WING.     255 

The  gun  being  provided,  the  youth  to  whom  it 
belongs  is  to  handle  it,  and  practise  the  handling 
of  it,  just  as  if  it  was  loaded,  until  he  brings  it  up 
to  his  shoulder  clean  and  well,  and  feels  as  well 
able  to  manage  it  nicely  and  quickly  as  he  is 
to  handle  his  bat  at  base-ball  or  cricket.  In  this 
practice  with  the  gun  he  is  to  be  careful  that  he 
never  lets  the  muzzle  look  towards  a  person.  It 
is  to  be  a  cardinal  principle  that  the  gun  in  his 
hands,  whether  charged  or  not,  shall  never  point 
towards  man  or  boy,  woman  or  girl,  in  the  field, 
or  the  house,  or  anywhere  else.  When  the  youth 
handles  the  gun  well  unloaded,  the  next  thing 
is  to  load.  Young  sportsmen  in  embryo  must 
begin  with  light  charges.  For  a  breech-loader  he 
may  use  the  metal  cases  for  his  cartridges,  or 
the  paper  cases  if  he  does  not  want  to  use  the 
case  more  than  once.  The  gun-maker  will  show 
him  how  to  load  them,  and  until  he  can  do  it 
properly  himself  he  had  better  get  it  done  by  a 
friend  who  understands  it.  He  will  learn  to  do 
it  very  easily. 

At  first  the  cartridges  for  the  youth  or  young 
man  must  be  loaded  lightly ;  for  if  they  are 
not,  and  his  gun  should  kick,  he  may  become 
afraid    of    it,   shut   both   his   eyes   when    he    pulls 


256  FIELD    8H00TINO. 

trigger,  hold  it  unsteadily,  and  fall  into  such 
habits  as  may  prevent  him  from  ever  becoming 
a  good  shot.  He  will  already  have  learned  to 
stand  upright,  with  his  left  foot  in  advance,  and 
his  right  a  little  back-  to  brace  the  body  when 
he  brings  his  gun  up  as  if  to  deliver  fire. 

With  cartridges  loaded  with  three  or  three  and 
a  half  drachms  of  powder  and  an  ounce  of  shot. 
No.  8  or  No.  9,  the  youth  is  to  go  into  a  field, 
yard,  or  any  safe  place,  and  put  up  a  target  of 
paper  a  foot  square  against  a  building,  a  wall, 
a  tree,  or  a  board.  He  may  then  retire  twenty 
yards,  load  his  gun,  take  aim  right  along  the  rib 
of  a  double-barrel,  along  the  top  of  the  barrel 
and  sight  if  single,  and  as  soon  as  he  has  taken 
aim  pull  the  trigger.  I  think  a  boy  will  usually 
get  a  quicker  and  better  sight  with  a  double- 
barrel  gun  than  with  a  single-barrel.  In  taking 
aim  the  youth  will  naturally  shut  his  left  eye, 
and  this,  is  proper.  I  have  heard  men  say  that 
it  is  best  to  shoot  without  shutting  one  eye. 
For  my  part  1  cannot  see  it.  One  eye  is  cer- 
tainly quite  as  good  as  two  when  it  is  taking 
aim  along  the'  gun  at  the  object,  and  I  believe  a 
good  deal  better.  In  snap-shooting  both  eyes  are 
often  open  when  the  fire  is  delivered,  but   even  in 


THE  ART  OP  SHOOTING  ON  THE  WING-     257 

that    most   good    shots    instinctively    shut   the   left 
eye  at  the  instant  of  firing. 

The  youth  must  load  again  after  his  shot,  and 
then  go  up  to  the  target  to  see  how  many  shot 
he  put  into  it,  change  the  paper,  and  try  again. 
The  main  points  are  to  get  good,  quick  aim, 
and  then  fire  on  the  instant,  with  the  gun  firmly 
held  and  well  braced  against  the  shoulder.  But 
the  gun  is  not  to  be  fired  in  a  hurried,  hap-ha- 
zard  sort  of  way  without  a  sight  being  obtained 
at  all.  When  the  object  is  once  sighted,  the 
shooter  is  to  fire,  and  not  delay  the  discharge 
under  the  notion  that  he  can  do  better.  The  first 
sight  is  the  best.  With  practice  and  the  con- 
sumption of  a  little  powder  and  shot  the  youth 
will  soon  become  familiar  with  the  shooting  of 
his  gun,  and  learn  to  bring  it  up,  take  aim,  and 
fire  without  any  pause  between  those  operations. 
He  will  then  find  that  he  can  hit  the  target 
every  time  with  the  centre  of  the  charge;  and  as 
this  is  the  way  to  kill,  he  is  now  to  begin  at 
birds.  Boys  have  a  hankering  after  shooting  at 
sitting  birds.  This  is  not  to  be  indulged  iu.  The 
target  is  better  practice  than  sitting  birds,  because 
if  the  youthful  shooter  goes  after  the  latter  he 
will   ramble   about   half  a  day  without  getting   as 


258  FIELD   SHOOTING. 

many  shots  in  distance  as  he  can  make  at  the 
target  in  a  quarter  of  an  hour.  Therefore,  when 
the  young  shooter  begins  at  birds,  it  is  to  be 
at  birds  on  the  wing — slow-flying  birds,  such  as 
meadow-larks,  swamp  blackbirds,  and   the  like. 

The  young  shooter  will  be  able  to  get  within 
twenty  yards  of  larks.  When  the  bird  gets  up, 
bring  the  gun  to  the  shoulder,  take  quick  aim, 
and  fire.  There  is  to  bo  no  dwelling  on  the  aim, 
which  is  to  be  point  blank  at  a  bird  going 
straight  away  from  the  gun,  just  as  the  sight 
was  plump  on  the  target.  By  going  into  the 
meadows  and  fields  where  swamp  blackbirds  fly 
up  and  down,  the  young  sportsman  may  stand 
and  shoot  at  them  as  they  go  by.  These  will 
be  cross-shots — or  side  shots,  as  I  call  them,  be- 
cause the  side  of  the  bird  is  presented  to  the  gun. 
One  bird  must  always  be  selected  for  the  shot, 
when  there  is  a  flock,  or  several  birds  are  fly- 
ing near  together;  and  as  the  course  of  the  bird 
is  across  the  line  of  fire,  allowance  must  be  made 
for  that  fact.  The  aim  must  be  a  little  ahead 
of  the  flying  bird.  At  short  distances  and  at 
slow-flying  birds  a  little  is  enough,  but  there 
should  be  some  allowance  made.  For  these  birds 
at    short    distances    No.    10    shot   will    be    large 


THE  ART  OF  SHOOTING  ON  THE  WING.     259 

enough.  When  longer  shots  are  in  order  for  the 
improving  shooter,  No.  8  may  be  used ;  and  as  he 
will  now  have  acquired  confidence  in  himself  and 
his  gun,  more  powder  may  be  employed.  After 
a  while  he  will  learn  the  quantity  of  powder 
with  which  his  gun  shoots  best  with  ease  and 
comfort  to  himself  in  delivering  fire. 

At  first  the  youAg  shooter  at  birds  on  the  wing 
may  expect  misses,  perhaps  a  good  many  of  them, 
but  he  need  not  be  disheartened.  When  he 
misses,  let  him  consider  and  hit  upon  the  pro- 
bable cause  of  the  miss.  It  may  be  that  he  shot 
too  high  or  too  low,  or  behind  the  bird — which 
is  very  likely  if  it  was  a  cross-shot — or  he  may 
have  shot  in  a  hurried,  flustered  way  without 
taking  aim.  To  whatever  cause  he  thinks  the 
miss  may  have  been  owing,  let  him  resolve  to 
guard  against  it  another  time.  I  wish  to  impress 
upon  the  young  shooter  that  missing  within  easy 
distance  is  not  a  matter  of  chance.  Under  such 
circumstances  there  is  always  a  cause  why  the 
miss  was  not  a  hit,  and  it  is  desirable  that  he 
who  has  made  it  should  find  out  the  cause  and 
be  prepared  to  prevent  it.  If  he  does  this,  he 
will  steadily  improve  in  his  shooting,  and  may 
probably  become    in    time  a    "  crack    shot,"    which 


200  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

signifies  one  of  the  best.  Going  on  missing  time 
after  time,  without  stopping  to  consider  why  the 
bird   was   missed,   will   not   do. 

When  a  bird  is  going  straight  away  from  the 
gun,  the  miss  of  the  beginner  is  commonly  ow- 
ing to  under-shooting.  His  line  of  fire,  straight 
ahead,  is  apt  to  be  correct,  but  he  often  shoots 
too  low.  Let  him  remember  that  a  bird  getting 
up  near  him  and  flying  away  is  almost  always 
rising  for  some  distance.  If  the  young  shooter 
gets  sight  of  the  bird,  he  is  certain  not  to  shoot 
too  high,  and  he  may  shoot  too  low;  therefore 
keep  the  gun  up,  and  if  you  see  a  feather  of 
the  bird  in  sighting  along  the  ridge,  crack  away. 
You  will  be  nearly  certain  to  bring  it  down. 
Misses  at  birds  which  present  side  shots,  and  fly 
across  the  line  of  fire,  are  usxially  owing  to  shoot- 
ing behind  the  bird.  The  young  shooter,  as 
1  observed  before,  must  allow  for  the  forward 
motion  of  the  bird  he  aims  at ;  and  if  at  short 
distances,  at  larks  and  swamp  blackbirds,  he 
shoots  ten  or  twelve  inches  ahead  of  the  bird, 
he  will  be  sure  to  hit  it,  provided  the  gun  had 
the   right    elevation. 

When  the  young  shooter,  after  having  missed 
two   or   three   side  shots,   thinks   it   was  owing    to 


THE  ART  OF  SHOOTING  ON  THE  WING.     261 

his  shooting  behind  his  birds,  he  -must  deter- 
mine to  hold  ahead  of  the  next  that  crosses. 
It  is  two  to  one  that  he  will  bring  that  one 
down,  although  he  is  but  a  beginner.  The  ne- 
cessity of  aiming  ahead  of  crossing  birds  is  often 
not  thoroughly  understood  even  by  adult  sports- 
men whose  practice  has  been  large ;  and  the  dis- 
tance at  which  it  '  is  proper  to  hold  at  a 
fast-flying  bird  crossing  a  long  shot  off*  is 
almost  universally  under-estimated.  The  gun  at 
the  shoulder  must  move  with  the  bird  until  aim 
is  taken  the  proper  distance  ahead  of  it.  Then 
■shoot  instantly.  The  young  shooter  must  practise 
all  he  can,  neglecting  no  opportunity.  When  by 
proper  instructions  he  has  been  taught  what  he 
is  to  do  and  how  he  is  to  do  it,  practice  is 
the  thing  through  which  he  will  improve  and 
perhaps  become  a  first-rate  shot.  When  he  has 
been  well  entered  at  larks,  swamp  blackbirds, 
swallows  and  the  like,  ho  will  be  fit  to  go  out 
with  a  companion,  an  old  sportsman  who  knows 
how  to  manage  dogs ;  if  convenient,  after  game- 
birds. 

Pinnated  grouse,  the  young  ones  at  the  early 
part  of  the  season,  afford  the  very  best  practice 
for    the   beginners   who  have   had    some    shooting 


262  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

at  larks  and  blackbirds.  If  the  commencement 
of  the  shooting  season  is  changed  by  law  from 
the  fifteenth  of  August  to  the  first  of  September, 
as  I  hope  it  will  be,  the  young  birds  will  still 
be  sufficiently  easy  for  the  youthful  sportsman. 
As  it  is  now,  they  might  be  a  little  difficult  on 
and  after  the  first  of  September ;  for  having  been 
shot  at  almost  incessantly  for 'the  last  sixteen  days 
in  August,  they  have  become  rather  wild,  and 
the  feeble  ones  have  all  been  killed.  I  am  sa- 
tisfied that  if  the  grouse  season  opened  on  the 
first  of  September,  I  could  take  a  youth  who 
had  practised  at  larks  and  blackbirds,  as  above 
described,  and  had  never  seen  a  live  grouse  in 
his  life,  and  so  instruct  him  in  the  field  by 
precept  and  example  that  his  shooting  should 
improve  right  along,  so  that  late  in  October 
and  November,  he  should  often  succeed  in  stop- 
ping grouse,  when,  according  to  some  who  call 
themselves  sportsmen,  they  are  so  wild  and  diffi- 
cult that  they  can't  be  killed  with  the  gun  at  all. 
But  as  the  young  sportsmen  of  the  East  have 
no  chance  at  the  grouse  of  Illinois,  Iowa,  etc., 
and  quail  and  snipe  are  too  difficult  to  afibrd 
fair  practice  for  beginners,  I  should  recommend 
the    youthful    gunners    to    try    their   hands    at    the 


THE  ART  OF  SHOOTING  ON  THE  WING.     263 

migratory  thrushes,  called  robins.  These  birds  flock 
together  in  the  fall  before  they  go  south,  and  fly 
up  and  down  rows  of  trees  in  fields,  or  along 
fences,  from  tree  to  tree,  in  lanes,  and  about  by- 
roads. They  will  afford  good  practice.  The  be- 
ginner need  not  be  deterred  from  shooting  at 
them  by  the  name  "  robin,"  because  these 
birds  are  no  more  robins  than  woodcocks  are. 
All  three  have  red  breasts,  and  so  has  the 
bullfinch.  The  young  shooter,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  will  not  shoot  at  these  handsome  birds 
when  they  are  alx>ut  gentlemen's  lawns,  where 
they  ornament  the  smooth-shorn  turf  and  embel- 
lish the  shrubbery.  The  time  for  action  at 
them  is  when  they  flock  preparatory  to  migration, 
when  they  will  be  found  in  such  places  as  have 
been  mentioned.  The  young  sportsman  may  often 
be  able  to  get  shots  at  these  birds  sitting,  but 
he  should  not  take  them.  His  main  object  is  to 
learn  to  shoot  well  at  birds  on  the  wing,  and 
to  this  end  three  so  killed  are  of  more  account 
than  three  dozen  shot  sitting  on  tree- tops  and 
on    the    boughs    of  scrub   pines    and    cedars. 

A  boy  who  can  bring  down  one-third  of  the 
larks  and  blackbirds  he  shoots  at,  and  can  stop  a 
swallow  once    out    of    three   or   four    times   when 


264  FIELD    SHOOTING, 

they  are  flying  low  and  darting  a  little,  as  they 
generally  do  before  rain,  is  sufficiently  advanced 
to  go  into  the  field  after  game.  Once  there, 
the  same  principles  apply  to  him  as  ought  to 
govern  older  marksmen,  but  do  not  always  do  so. 
During  the  first  part  of  my  residence  in  Illinois, 
although  I  was  a  good  shot,  as  twenty  brace  of 
quail  may  serve  to  prove,  I  was  nothing  like  as 
good  as  I  have  since  become.  Years  of  experience, 
shooting  many  mmrths  i:i  each  year,  and  nearly 
every  day  except  Sundays^  with  much  thought, 
over  the  principles,  of  shooting  as  an  art,  have  en- 
abled me  to  arrive  at  as  much  certainty  as  men 
attain  to.  It  may  seem  like  boasting,  but  never- 
theless I  declare  my  conviction  that  I  can  shoofi 
game-birds  on  the?  wing,  in  the  field,  as  well  as 
any  man  who  lives  or  ever  did  live.  1  have  had 
a  challenge  out  for  three  years,  oflTering  to  shoot 
against  any  ntan  In  the  world,  Western  field- 
shooting,  aaid  another  offering  to  shoot  against  any 
man  in  the  world  at  pigeons.  The  challenge  for 
field-shooting  has  now  been  withdrawn,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  accident  which  befell  me  in  1872, 
when  I  was  shot  clean  through  the  right  thigh 
by  my  own  gun  when  the  muzzle  touched  me. 
It  occurred   in   the   way    I   shall  now   relate. 


THE  ART  OF  SHOOTING  ON  THE  WING.     265 

I  was  engaged  in  shooting  pinnated  grouse  in 
December,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Elkhart. 
On  the  ninth  of  that  month,  when  starting  at 
break  of  day,  I  drove  to  Mr.  Gillott's  pastures  in 
my  buggy,  and  got  there  before  it  was  quite 
light.  I  opened  the  gate,  went  into  the  pas- 
ture, and,  getting  into  the  buggy  again,  prepared 
for  shooting.  The  birds  at  that  time  were  quite 
wild,  and  it  was  necessary  to  shoot  them  from 
the  buggy.  My  gun  lay  upon  my  knees,  both 
barrels  cocked.  As  I  was  stooping  over  to  draw 
the  blanket  upon  my  knees,  the  right  fore- wheel 
of  the  buggy  fell  into  a  deep  rut.  The  gun 
canted,  and  before  I  could  catch  it  the  butt  hit 
the  hind  wheel,  and  the  right  barrel  went  off, 
making  a  hole  through  my  thigh.  The  gun 
was  loaded  with  five  drams  of  powder  and  an 
ounce  of  No.  6  shot.  It  was  a  terrible  wound, 
but  happily  most  of  the  shot  missed  the  thigh- 
bone. Some,  however,  hit  it,  but  did  not  break 
it.  They  are  in  my  thigh  now.  I  drove  homo, 
was  laid  up  four  months,  and  am  now  well  again. 
But  the  wound  has  had  the  following  effect :  I 
cannot  walk  as  long  as  I  used  to  do  before  I  re- 
ceived it.  It  is  also  very  painful  at  times,  so 
much    so   that    I    almost    fear    it   is  going  to  break 


266  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

out  again.  Now,  under  this  altered  state  of 
things,  it  would  hardly  do  for  me  to  shoot  against 
any  man  in  the  world,  and  see  who  could  kill 
the  most  game  in  a  week,  say  ;  but  I  will  even 
now  shoot  against  any  man  in  the  world,  for  a 
reasonable  number  of  hours  on  a  reasonable  num- 
ber of  days,  and  take  shot  about,  as  game 
offers,  one  man  to  follow  the  shot  of  the  other. 
I  shall  now  relate  the  methods  1  have  finally 
adopted.  To  young  sportsmen  what  I  shall  ad- 
vance will  certainly  be  instructive  and  useful,  and 
1  think  many  old  ones  may  gather  things  from  it 
which  will  be  of  service  to  them.  One-half  the 
shots  made  at  birds  in  the  field  are  at  birds  which 
fly  across  the  shooter,  presenting  side  shots,  or  go 
quartering  off  from  him,  so  that  their  course  forms 
an  obtuse  angle  with  the  line  of  fire.  Most  of 
the  misses  which  occur  in  shooting  at  such  birds 
are  owing  to  the  failure  of  the  shooter  to  hold 
forward  enough  so  that  the  centre  of  the  charge 
will  be  upon  the  bird  when  the  shot  reaches  him. 
The  centre  of  the  flight  of  shot  should  reach  the 
line  of  his  flight  just  where  he  will  be  when  the 
line  of  the  shot  intersects  his  line  of  flight,  not 
where  he  was  when  the  aim  was  made.  The  fur- 
ther the  bird  is  from  the  shooter,  the  faster  he  is 


THE  ART  OF.  SHOOTING  ON  THE  WING.     267 

going,  and  the  nearer  his  line  of  flight  is  at  fight 
angles  with  the  line  of  the  gun,  the  more  the 
shooter  must  hold  ahead  of  him  to  kill.  I  have 
had  this  very  thoroughly  impressed  upon  me  since 
I  have  been  a  pigeon-shooter.  When  a  man  is 
in  the  field  killing  plenty  of  birds,  and  game  is 
abundant,  he  does  not  pause  to  consider  how  it 
was  he  missed  this  bird  or  that.  He  pushes  on 
to  where  his  dogs  have  made  another  point.  But 
when  a  man  misses  once  or  twice  in  ten  birds 
from  the  traps,  and  there  are  five  hundred  or  a 
thousand  dollars  depending  upon  his  gun,  he  is 
apt  to  cogitate  over  the  reasons  of  these  things. 

1  had  already  noticed  that  in  field-shooting  more 
of  the  birds  got  away  crippled  from  side  shots 
than  from  other  kinds.  The  reason,  I  concluded, 
was  simply  this :  the  gun  was  not  held  quite  for- 
ward enough,  and,  instead  of  being  in  the  line  of 
the  centre  of  the  charge,  the  bird  was  merely  struck 
by  one  or  two  of  the  shot  on  the  outer  edge  of 
the  flight.  If  he  was  flying  to  the  left,  nothing  but 
the  outer  shot  on  the  left  side  would  hit  him  ;  and 
if  to  the  right,  nothing  but  the  straggling  outside 
shot  on  the  right.  I  began  to  hold  more  forward 
at  crossing  birds,  and  then  I  found  that  instead 
of  being   hit  and   getting   away  crippled,  the  birds 


268  FIELD    SHOOTINQ. 

covered   by    the    centre    of    the    flying    charge,   or 
thereabout,  were  cut  down  dead. 

In  pigeon-shooting  1  soon  made  this  principle  a 
matter  of  nice  calculation.  Many  may  think  that 
at  only  twenty-one  yards  from  the  trap  there  is 
no  need  for  the  practical  application  of  this  prin- 
ciple;  but  1  know  there  is.  At  easy,  slow- flying 
birds,  going  right  or  left  from  the  trap,  I  hold 
three  or  four  inches  ahead  of  the  bird.  It  is  well 
known  by  those  who  attend  the  great  pigeon- 
shooting  tournaments  and  matches  that  1  generally 
kill  all  such  birds,  while  some  other  men,  who  are 
very  good  shots,  often  miss  them.  The  reason,  is 
plain  to  my  mind :  they  shoot  a  little  behind  the 
bird.  At  a  fast-flying  crossing  bird  I  hold  from 
eight  to  ten  inches  ahead ;  at  a  quartering  bird 
from  three  to  four  inches.  At  a  bird  which  goes 
straight  away  close  to  the  ground  I  hold  right  on, 
well  covered,  because  he  is  rapidly  advancing.  At 
one  going  straight  away  and  rising  I  shoot  high, 
because  he  is  rising,  and  if  you  hold  right  on  to 
him  you  are  apt  to  under-shoot ;  and  though  you 
may  wound  him,  he  will  be  likely  to  get  out  of 
bounds.  At  an  incoming  bird  I  shoot  right  at 
the  head,  and  I  rarely  fail  to  kill.  Incoming  birds 
are  often  missed  from  under-shootinff.      The  hard- 


THE  ART  OF  SHOOTINO  ON  THE  WING.     269 

est  of  all  birds  are  those  which  go  straight  away 
from  the  trap  in  the  line  of  the  shooter,  at  a  very 
swift  rate,  and  close  to  the  ground.  Such  birds 
get  hard  hit,  but  they  often  get  out  of  bounds. 
They  present  a  very  small  mark ;  their  wings 
are  closed,  perhaps,  when  the  shot  reaches  where 
they  are,  the  charge  scatters,  and  their  heads 
are  covered  by  their  bodies  for   the  most  part. 

In  field-shooting  it  is  very  necessary  to  apply 
the  foregoing  principles,  because  the  bird  shot  at 
will  often  be  forty  yards  off,  and  perhaps  more. 
At  a  pinnated  grouse  going  straight  away  the 
shooter  should  aim  right  on.  When  a  side  shot 
is  presented,  and  the  bird  is  going  at  a  middling 
rate,  thirty  yards  off',  aim  from  ten  to  twelve 
inches  ahead  of  it.  Quartering  shots  must  be 
judged  of  according  to  distance  and  rate  of  flight ; 
taking  my  pigeon-shooting  experience  as  a  standard 
and  guide,  and  remembering  that  late  in  the  fall, 
when  grouse  rise  far  off'  and  fly  fast,  the  shooter 
must  hold  further  ahead  of  crossing  and  quartering 
birds. 

Some  think  that  the  barrels  of  a  double-bar- 
relled gun  shoot  a  little  in — that  is,  the  right 
barrel  shoots  a  little  to  the  left,  and  the  left 
barrel  a  little  to  the  right.     If  some  guns  do  this, 


270  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

they  ought  not  to  perform  so.  Good  guns  do  not, 
I  would  not  have  a  gun  which  shot  in.  It  is  wrong 
in  principle,  ^ 

At  a  quail  flying  fast  across  at  twenty  yards 
hold  twelve  inches  ahead  of  the  bird.  Some- 
times in  quail-shooting  a  bevy  put  up  by  an- 
other sportsman  near  at  hand  will  come  by  a 
shooter,  crossing  at  immense  speed  thirty  or  forty 
yards  off,  perhaps  more,  hi  such  a  case  hold 
three  feet  ahead  of  the  bird  you  shoot  at,  1 
have  often  done  so,  and  killed  him.  At  ruffed 
grouse  and  woodcock  in  cover,  and  at  pinnated 
grouse  and  quail  in  corn,  snap-shots  must  be 
made.  The  sportsman  must  shoot  at  the  glimpse 
of  the  bird,  and,  if  he  sees  that  it  is  crossing,  a 
little  in  advance  of  it.  A  little  will  do  in  most 
cases,  because  the  birds  are  hardly  seen  far  off 
in  thick  cover  or  in  corn.  For  snap-shooting  of 
this  sort  a  good-fitting  gun  is  an  absolute  neces- 
sity, so  that  when  it  is  tossed  up  it  will  come 
slap  to  the  shoulder. 

In  duck-shooting,  at  the  morning  flights,  when 
they  are  overhead  and  from  thirty  to  forty  yards 
in  the  air,  hold  from  fifteen  inches  to  two  feet 
ahead  of  the  bird  you  aim  at,  according  to  the 
rapidity  at  which   it   is   moving.      Great  judgment 


THE  ART  OF  SHOOTING  ON  THE  WING.     271 

is  to  be  exercised,  and  much  practice  is  neces- 
sary to  attain  it.  There  is  always  a  certain  space 
of  time  between  the  aim  and  the  arrival  of  the 
shot  at  the  mark ;  and  if  the  mark  is  moving 
across  the  muzzle  of  the  gun,  allowance  must  be 
made  for  it.  Birds  overhead  are  always  crossing 
the  muzzle  of  the  gun,  unless  they  see  the  shooter 
and  tower  up.  After  the  taking  of  the  aim, 
though  ever  so  little  after,  the  trigger  has  to  be 
pulled,  the  hammer  has  to  fall,  the  powder  has 
to  be  ignited,  and  the  shot  to  be  propelled  to 
the  object  shot  at.  Now,  I  often  noticed  that 
in  shooting  at  the  leading  duck  of  a  flock  pass- 
ing overhead  which  did  not  see  me,  and  tower, 
I  missed  the  one  I  shot  at,  and  killed  another 
one  two  feet  behind  the  one  which  led  the  van 
and  was  aimed  at.  This  made  me  resolv^e  to  hold 
more  forward  than  I  had  been  doing.  Pintails 
"and  teal  fly  faster  than  mallards,  and  a  little  more 
allowance  in  taking  aim  will  be  good,  I  have  seen 
a  pintail  killed  which  was  three  feet  behind  the 
duck  shot  at,  and  this  more  than   once. 

Wild  geese  and  crane  are  slow  flyers,  and  at 
these  all  that  is  necessary  is  to  aim  at  the  head,  be- 
hind which  there  is  the  large  body.  But  in  shoot- 
ing at  wild  geese   and    crane  with    large    shot,  and 


272  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

making  a  long  shot,  the  shooter  had  better  hold  a 
little  forward  of  the  head  of  the  bird.  In  windy 
weather  the  shot  deflects  somewhat  from  the 
straight  course,  and  flies  off"  a  little  to  leeward.  Al- 
lowance must  be  made  for  this,  especially  by  those 
who  use  light  charges  of  powder. 

As  to  distance,  there  is  this  to  be  observed :  al- 
though wild  geese  and  ducks  are  almost  always 
further  off"  than  they  are  supposed  to  be,  they  will 
be  killed  easily  enough  with  a  good  gun  and  a 
proper  charge,  provided  the  gun  is  held  right.  I 
have  often  killed  ducks  and  brant  geese  which 
were  sixty  yards  off",  and  a  few  which  were  not 
less  than  a  hundred.  But  there  is  no  certainty  of 
killing  birds  at  more  than  forty  yards,  owing  to 
the  spread  of  the  shot  as  it  flies  in  diverging  lines 
from  the  muzzle  of  the  gun;  and  twice  as  many 
are  killed  at  twenty-five  yards  and  under  as  there 
are  at  over  that  distance,  I  have  heard  men  boast 
of  killing  all  the  pinnated  grouse  they  shot  at 
within  a  hundred  yards,  and  I  immediately  con- 
cluded that  this  might  be  true  if  they  never  shot 
grouse  at  any  distance.  It  is  like  the  story  of  the 
man  who  declared  that  his  horse  could  run  less 
than  a  mile  a  minute,  whereupon  an  Irish  jockey 
exclaimed :  "  That's  a  d — d  lie  !  " 


THE  ART  OF  SHOOTING  ON  THE  WING.     273 

I  did  once  kill  a  pinnated  grouse  at  ninety- 
five  yards,  but  it  was  by  a  chance  shot.  I  and 
Miles  Johnson,  of  New  Jersey,  were  shooting  in 
McLean  County  with  No.  7  shot.  A  pack  of 
grouse  got  up  together,  of  which  he  killed  two 
and  I  killed  two.  One  of  the  others  circled 
round  a  long  way  off,  and  1  slipped  in  another 
cartridge.  The  bird  presented  a  long  side  shot, 
flying  fast.  1  held  as  much  as  six  feet  ahead 
of  him,  and  let  fly.  One  of  the  shot  happened 
to  hit  him  in  the  head,  and  down  he  came  with 
a  heavy  thud.  Johnson  stepped  the  ground  from 
where  1  fired,  and  made  it  ninety-five  yards  to 
the  dead  grouse.  It  must  have  been  as  far  off 
whon  the  single  shot  killed  it,  for  it  fell  perpen- 
dicularly, there  being  next  to  no  wind.  It  was 
all  a  matter  of  chance.  I  had  no  expectation  of 
killing  the  bird  when  1  fired,  and  might  shoot 
fifty  times  under  the  like  circumstances  without 
killing   once. 

1  have  recently  visited  the  shot-tower  of  Tatham 
Brothers,  and  that  of  Thos.  Otis  Le  Roy  &  Co. 
Tiie  shot  made  at  these  towers  is  excellent.  The 
latter  is  made  according  to  the  American  stand- 
iii-d  adopted  by  the  New  York  Sportsman's  As- 
sociation, which    is    as    follows: 


274  FIELD   SHOOTING. 

Scale.  Number  of  Pellets 

Diameter  in  Inches.  Number.  to  an  ounce. 

iV-o TT     .     .     .     .  33 

-i*,fo T 38 

-i»t?,- BBB  ....  44 

-h% BE      ...     .  49 

Vife B 58 

■f,fe 1 69 

Tfftr  .....3 83 

iVir 3 98 

ftJV 4 131 

T^fo- 5 149 

iihs 6 309 

-.^0% 7 378 

-rh 8 375 

T^ 9 560 

riv 10 833 

T§7 11    .....     .  983 

rh 13 1,778      • 

In  reference  to  cartridge-cases,  which  I  have  had 
occasion  to  mention  often,  I  shall  here  quote 
from  the  circular  of  the  Union  Metallic  Cartiidge 
Company,  Bridgeport,  Conn.,  for  the  information 
of  sportsmen : 

"Special  attention  is  called  to  the  Sturtevant 
Patent  Movable  Anvil.  By  the  use  of  these 
anvils  in  metallic  shells  certainty  of  fire  is  se- 
cured, and    the    exploded    caps   are   easily   pushed 


THE  ART  OF  SHOOTING  ON  THE  WING.     275 

off  without  the  necessity  of  any  special  instru- 
ment. The  rod  which  is  used  for  pressing  down 
the  wads  in  loading  the  shells  will  also  answer 
for  pushing  off  the  exploded  caps.  These  shells 
are  intended  to  use  the  breech-loading  shell-caps 
of  our  own  make,  or  the  English  caps,  such  as 
used  in  Eley's  paper  shells,  but  in  case  of  ne- 
cessity the  ordinary  '  G.  D.'  caps  may  be  used. 
These  shells  are  made  to  fit  the  standard  gauges 
used  by  the  principal  gun-makers  of  England, 
are  sure  to  fit  the  chambers  of  the  guns,  and 
will    stand    reloading    a   great    many    times. 

"The  Sturtevant  patent  shells  can  be  purchased 
of  or  ordered  from  any  dealer  in  ammunition. 
Also  metallic  shells  for  shot-guns  having  the 
Berdan  patent  anvils,  Nos.  1  and  2,  and  both 
metallic  and  paper  shells  with  the  Hobbs  and 
Orcutt  patent  primers,  which  have  the  anvils 
secured   in  the   caps." 


CHAPTER  XV. 

SPORTING  DOGS BREEDING  AND  BREAKING. 

In   my    time    I    have   bred    and    broken    many 

dogs  for  the   sports   of    the  field,  and  always  with 

a  view  to    simple  utility  in    the    field.      I    think  I 

have  had  some  of  the    best    dogs  that  a   man  ever 

shot  over,  and  my  system  of  breaking  has  always 

answered  my  purpose   well ;  but  I    do  not  pretend 

to    be   a   dog-breaker  in    regard    to    the  particulars 

which    many  sportsmen    hold    to  be  necessary,  but 

which   1   do   not   regard   as   essential    in   the   light 

of    my     own    experience.       Therefore    what     I   am 

about    to    say     on    this    point    is    more    for    those 

who  keep    a   dog  or    two     of    their    own    than   for 

adepts    in  breaking     dogs,    or  gentlemen   who     can. 

afford   to    pay  high  prices    in    order    to   secure   the 

results    of    high    education     in     their     pointers  and 

setters.     1  propose   to  state  on  this  subject  what  I 

know,    and    to    mention    some    few    facts    in  regard 

to   dogs    which    I     have     bred,    broken,    and    shot 

over   which  may   serve   to   point   the   matter. 

For  the  prairie  country,  where,  as  1  believe,  the 
Sfr6 


SPORTIITG    DOGS — BREEDING   AKD    BREAKING.      277 

best  shooting  within  a  thousand  miles  of  the  Atlantic 
seaboard  is  to  be  had,  the  setter  is  probably  to 
be  preferred.  There  are,  however,  several  weighty 
matters  which  tell  in  favor  of  the  pointer.  The 
latter  stands  heat  better  than  the  setter,  and 
there  are  many  hot  days  in  September,  and  even 
in  October.  Some  think  the  pointer  stands  thirst 
better  than  the  setter,  but  the  truth  is  that  both 
want  water  every  hour  and  a  half  or  two  hours. 
The  defects  of  the  pointer  for  the  prairie  arc 
his  thin  skin  and  tender  feet.  In  the  fall  of  the 
year  the  prairie-grass  has  a  beard  which  cuts 
into  skin  or  leather.  Shoot  in  a  pair  of  new 
boots,  and  the  toes  will  be  cut  through  in  about 
ten  days  or  a  fortnight,  or  in  less  time,  if  you 
go  into  the  dry  grass  much  while  the  leather  is 
still  wet.  Consequently,  as  the  skin  of  the  pointer 
is  not  protected  by  a  thick  coat  of  wiry  hair, 
like  that  of  the  best  and  hardiest  setters,  it  is 
cut  on  the  legs,  flanks,  sides,  and  the  inside  of 
the    thighs.      The  feet    are    also    cut   and   lamed. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  long,  thick  coat  of  the 
setter  gets  full  of  cocKle-burrs  in  those  old  fields 
in  which  game  is  often  found,  and  they  cause 
him  a  vast  amount  of  trouble  and  annoyance. 
About    one-fourth    of  the    time    in    such    fields    the 


278  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

setter  is  trying  to  free  himself  from  the  burrs, 
and  at  night,  if  they  are  not  carefully  picked 
out  of  his  coat  by  his  master,  he  gets  no  rest, 
and  is  nearly  useless  the  next  day.  Sportsmen 
who  shoot  over  setters  should  always  take  care 
that  they  are  freed  from  burrs  in  the  evening. 
If  they  do  not,  their  dogs  will  be  miserable  all 
night,  and  not  fit  for  use  in  the  morning,  when 
the  prime  of  the  sport  is  to  be  had.  I  have 
had  capital  setters,  and  I  must  say  that  I  have 
had  and  seen  pointers  in  the  field  which  were 
equally  good,  subject  to  the  drawbacks  I  have 
mentioned   above   in  regard  to   each. 

Good  dogs  of  both  kinds  have  fine  scenting 
powers,  and  the  setters,  so  far  as  my  experience 
goes,  are  as  much  under  control  as  pointers  when 
worked  by  men  who  know  their  business.  Set- 
ters take  to  retrieving  in  water  much  better  than 
pointers,  and  on  the  whole,  as  I  remarked  before, 
the  setter  is  the  best  dog  for  our  part  of  the 
country.  When  the  skin  of  the  pointer  is  cut 
by  the  prairie-grass  and  rough  weeds,  and  the 
tops  of  his  toes  are  raw,  he  comes  out  in  the 
morning  so  stiff  and  sore  that  he  is  hardly  able 
to  hobble  along  at  first.  The  dog's  ambition  car- 
ries   him    on,   however,    and   he   gets   more    limber 


SPORTING    DOGS BREEDING    AND    BREAKING.       279 

after   a   while.     But   even   then   the   flies   settle  on 
the    sores  and   annoy   him   very   much. 

When  Miles  Johnson  came  out  to  Illinois  to 
shoot  "with  me,  he  had  four  as  nice  pointers  as  I 
ever  saw,  while  I  had  one  cross-bred  dog  between 
the  pointer  and  the  setter  which  he  said  did  not 
look  to  be  worth  ten  dollars.  But  the  pointers, 
though  used  by  turns,  soon  got  sore,  and,  in  order 
to  make  frequent  changes,  he  had  to  take  them 
out  when  they  were  hardly  fit  to  go.  My  cross- 
bred dog,  on  the  contrary,  was  at  work  every  day 
and  never  tired,  so  that  Miles  said  many  gentlemen 
in  the  East,  if  they  saw  his  style  of  hunting,  his 
staunchness,  and  the  game  and  bottom  he  dis- 
played, would  give  five  hundred  dollars  for  him. 
I  have  bred  and  used  cross-bred  dogs  for  years, 
and  for  the  Western  country,  all  sorts  of  work 
in  the  field  or  cover,  long  days  and  many  days  in 
succession,  I  hold  them  to  be  the  best  of  dogs. 
I  like  to  put  a  pointer-dog,  well  bred  and  good 
in  the  field,  to  a  setter-bitch  of  the  same  excel- 
lent qualities,  or  a  setter-dog  to  a  pointer-bitch  ;  it 
mak^s  no  difference,  that  I  could  ever  see,  which  side 
the  pointer-blood  was,  though  some  have  a  theory 
that  it  does.  Nor  does  it  matter  what  the  colors 
of  the  parents  are.     From  a  black  setter-dog  and 


280  FIELD    SIIOOTINO. 

a  white  pointer-bitch  I  bred  a  litter  of  livor- 
colored    pups   which    became   first-rate    dogs. 

.Some  of  the  cross-bred  dogs  take  after  the 
setter,  and  some  after  the  pointer,  in  shape 
and  coat,  in  the  same  litter.  On  the  whole, 
I  prefer  those  which  follow  the  pointer.  They 
have  a  short  but  thick  coat  and  a  tough  skin, 
while  the  hair  is  not  long  enough  to  catch 
hold  of  the  cockle-burrs.  Both  kinds  are  hearty, 
strong  dogs,  with  good  constitutions  and  capable 
of  great  endurance.  As  a  rule,  they  are  inclined 
to  be  headstrong  and  are  difficult  to  break,  but 
when  they  are  broken  and  have  learned  their 
business  they  make  first-rate  dogs  and  hardly 
ever   tire. 

Those  cross-bred  dogs  which  take  after  the 
pointer  look  like  pointers,  and  many  men  think 
they  are  pointers ;  bat  they  have  much  better  feet, 
and  their  legs  and  bodies  are  covered  and  well  pro- 
tected by  thick  but  short  hair.  I  have  foimd 
them  good,  tough  dogs,  capable  of  standing  more 
hard  work  than  either  pointers  or  setters,  as  a 
rule.  Those  which  take  after  the  setter  have  more 
power  than  setters,  and  great  bone  and  substance. 
Their  hair  is  not  as  long  as  the  setter's,  but  it 
is   thicker.      Both   kinds    are    as    good    for   water 


SPORTING  DOGS BREEDING  AND  BREAKING.   281 

and  cold  weather  as  need  be.  They  have  had 
plenty  of  both  in  my  service,  and  I  know  the 
fact. 

Another  thing  is  that  a  timid  dog  is '  a  rare 
exception  among  these  cross-bred  dogs.  A  timid 
dog  gives  immense  trouble  to  breakers,  and  is, 
,to  my  thinking,  little  better  than  a  nuisance.  A 
ipan  must  have  great  patience  and  forbearance 
to  make  much  of  timid  dogs.  If  he  corrects 
their  faults,  they  are  cowed  at  once,  and  slink 
behind  his  heels.  The  cross-bred  dog,  bold,  high- 
headed,  and  eager,  will  run  riot  at  first,  but 
they  can  be  educated  and  made  to  understand 
and  perform  their  duties.  They  will  stand  punish- 
ment, and,  in  fact,  cannot  be  broken  without  it ; 
but  when  they  are  once  well  broken,  they  never 
forget  what  they  have  been  taught  to  do  or  what  to 
refrain  from  doing.  As  before  remarked,  I  prefer 
those  which  follow  the  pointer  in  shape  and  coat, 
but  I  have  had  some  which  took  after  the  setter, 
and  were  as  nearly  perfect  as  dogs  could  be.  I 
think  the  best  dog  I  ever  had  was  one  of  these ; 
at  any  rate  she  was  esteemed  by  me  as  worth 
her    weight    in   gold. 

Fanny  was  the  produce  of  a  pure-bred  lemon 
and    white     setter-bitch,     and     a     pure-bred     liver- 


282  FIELD   SHOOTING. 

colored  pointer-dog.  She  took  after  her  mother 
in  shape  and  coat,  but  was  larger  and  stronger, 
and  was  liver  and  white  in  color.  She  was  of 
good  size  and  strong.  Her  coat  was  thick 
and  not  as  long  as  her  mother's,  and  she  had 
but  a  little  feather  on  the  legs.  She  had  splen- 
did scenting  powers,  was  easily  broken,  was  good 
for  every  sort  of  shooting,  and  the  best  retriever 
I  ever  saw.  In  retrieving  pinnated  grouse  or 
quail,  if  she  came  upon  the  scent  of  other  birds 
while  bringing  in  the  game,  she  would  point  and 
stand  staunch  with  the  dead  one  in  her  mouth, 
or  even  with  a  winged  one  that  was  fluttering. 
It  is  thought  by  some  that  a  dog  ought  not  to 
do  this.  I  know  that  very  few  will  do  it  with 
the    winged   bird,   but    I    like    it. 

Fanny  would  work  from  daybreak  until  dark, 
and  willingly.  I  shot  over  her  seven  seasons,  and 
never  knew  her  to  "  refuse "  but  twice,  and  on  one 
of  these  occasions  it  was  my  fault,  not  hers. 
I  killed  thousands  of  birds  over  her,  and  broke 
many  young  dogs  in  her  company.  As  a  re- 
triever of  water-fowl  I  never  saw  her  equal. 
She  would  cheerfully  go  in  and  bring  ducks  out 
of  the  water  when  ice  froze  in  her  hair  as  soon 
as    she    landed.     It   was    in    such    weather    that    I 


SPORTING    DOGS BREEDING    AND    BREAKING.       283 

fell  into  a  great  error,  and  caused  her  to  refuse 
her    work    one    time. 

One  very  cold  day  I  was  shooting  ducks  on 
Salt  Creek,  and  creeping  up  got  a  shot  at  a  flock 
of  mallards  sitting  on  the  water.  It  was  a  very 
large  flock.  One  barrel  was  fired  while  they  were 
on  the  water,  the  other  as  they  rose.  Eight  were 
killed  and  five  others  winged.  Fanny  retrieved 
the  dead  ones,  while  the  wounded  swam  to  the 
other  side  of  the  creek  and  hid  on  the  bank.  She 
went  to  the  other  side,  but  the  ice  had  now  formed 
in  her  coat,  and,  being  very  cold,  she  sat  down.  I 
called  her  over  to  me  and  corrected  her,  after  which 
she  crossed  and  recrossed  three  times,  and  brought 
three  more.  She  then  wanted  to  give  it  up,  and  I 
had  half  a  mind  to  let  her  do  so ;  but  there  were 
two  more  ducks  wounded,  and  if  not  brought  they 
would  die  of  slow  starvation,  so  1  required  her  to 
fetch  them,  which  she  did.  It  was  a  very  hard 
task  in  such  cold  weather,  and  1  was  sorry  to 
punish  her ;  but  it  shows  what  this  sort  of  dog  can 
do  when  an  emergency  requires  much  strength  and 
I'ndurance.  She  was  a  very  sagacious  and  affec- 
tionate bitch,  and  a  great  favorite  in  the  house  at 
home. 

It  is  not  good  for  a  dog  to  be  long  in  the  water 


284  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

in  very  cold  weather.  Fetching  out  one  or  two 
ducks  does  no  harm,  and  good  ones  like  it ;  but  to 
be  long  in  the  "water  at  such  times  is  very  try- 
ing. I  never  afterwards  suffered  Fanny  to  do 
more  in  that  line  than  she  could  perform  without 
injury. 

Sometimes  when  going  pinnated-grouse  shoot- 
ing, and  passing  along  in  my  wagon  early  in  the 
morning,  I  would  have  a  chance  to  shoot  one. 
On  these  occasions  she  would  jump  out,  retrieve 
it,  and  jump  back  into  the  wagon  with  the  bird 
in  her  mouth.  If  I  drove  for  grouse  in  ploughed 
land  or  in  grass-fields  that  had  been  mowed, 
with  Fanny  in  the  back  of  the  wagon,  she 
would,  on  seeing  the  birds,  point  from  the  wagon, 
and  maintain  her  point  all  the  while  as  I  drove 
on  to  get  within  shot.  One  time,  when  going  out 
for  grouse  to  the  Delavan  Prairie,  Fanny,  went 
into  a  corn-field  at  the  edge  of  the  timber,  and 
I,  paying  no  attention,  drove  on.  Finding  that 
she  Avas  not  following,  I  pulled  up,  after  having 
gone  a  considerable  distance,  and  whistled  for  her. 
She  stayed  a  long  time,  but  came  at  last,  bring- 
ing with  her  a  wild  turkey  three  parts  grown. 
1  had  recently  had  her  out  when  turkey-shoot- 
ing,  and  she  was   the    best    dog    1    ever   saw   to 


SPORTING  DOGS BREEDING  AND  BREAKING.   285 

point  a  wild  turkey.  I  have  no  doubt  she  stood 
at  that  turkey  a  long  time,  and  only  went  in  to 
catch  it  herself  when  called  off.  She  could  soon 
understand  what  I  was  after.  If  rabbit-shooting, 
she  would  stand  and  retrieve  them,  and,  if  not, 
she  would  not  notice  them. 

Once,  shooting  pinnated  grouse  when  they  were 
wild,  I  found  there  was  a  flock  on  a  fence  two  or 
three  hundred  yards  off.  I  had  a  muzzle-loader, 
and  hanging  my  shot-belt  and  powder-flask  on  the 
fence,  I  crawled  up  so  as  to  be  within  shot  when 
the  grouse  flew.  I  killed  one,  and  winged  another 
with  the  second  barrel.  In  retrieving  the  wounded 
one  Fanny  winded  a  bevy  of  quail,  and  stood  hard 
with  the  winged  grouse  fluttering  in  her  mouth. 
The  quail  were  twenty  yards  off  from  her  in  some 
corn,  but  nevertheless  she  stood  hard  and  fast  with 
the  grouse  fluttering  in  her  mouth,  while  I  went  back 
two  hundred  yards  for  the  powder  and  shot,  loaded, 
and  returned.  I  then  took  the  grouse  from  her, 
whereupon  she  flushed  the  quail,  and  I  killed  a 
brace.  This  was  one  of  the  greatest  things  I  have 
ever  known  a  dog  to  do.  The  grouse  was  alive 
and  fluttering;  with  a  dead  bird  in  her  mouth  the 
performance  would  not  have  been  so  very  remarka- 
ble. 


280  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

Fanny  khew  no  fancy  tricks,  and  would  not 
fetch  and  carry  out  of  the  field.  I  have  never 
taught  my  dogs  out  of  the  field.  In  the  field  no 
dog  ever  beat  her.  Her  quick  perception  and 
sense  were  extraordinary.  She  seemed  to  imder- 
stand  what  was  wanted.  If  ducks  in  a  pond  were 
to  be  crawled  up  to,  she  would  lie  down  as  I 
started,  and  stay  there  imtil  she  heard  the  crack 
of  the  gun.  If  I  laid  anything  down  and  told  her 
to  watch  it,  she  always  remained  until  I  returned. 
If  I  had  stayed  away  all  day,  or  two  days  for  that 
nuxtter,  she  would  not  have  left  her  post. 

I  have  known  dogs  that  could  not  be  called 
off  a  point;  but  they  were  those  which  had  been 
broken  not  to  flush  their  game,  leaving  that  to 
the  shooter.  An  English  gentleman  came  to  Elk- 
hart from  St.  Louis,  with  whom  I  went  shooting 
nearly  every  day  during  his  visit.  He  had  a  pair 
of  splendid  pointers,  as  fine  as  I  ever  saw — large, 
strong  dogs  with  long  heads.  One  of  them  was 
black,  the  other  red.  When  the  black  dog  would 
get  on  a  point  in  corn,  he  would  not  leave  it 
until  either  his  master  or  some  other  man  flushed 
the  birds.  The  consequence  was  that  we  often 
had  to  go  in  and  find  him,  and  I  have  fre- 
quently been    half  an   hour    in    searching   for    him. 


SPORTING  DOGS BREEDING  AND  BREAKING.   287 

That  style  of  breaking  may  suit  England  well 
enough — no  doubt  it  does ;  but  in  the  prairie  States 
it  does  not  answer  the  purpose.  The  red  dog  was 
not  so  obstinately  staunch.  After  standing  his 
birds  a  good  while  he  would  flush  them  himself, 
and  then  come  in  sight  of  us.  One  day  I  was 
prevented  from  shooting,  and  the  gentleman  came 
back  at  night  without  the  black  dog.  He  had 
lost  him  at  dusk  in  a  piece  of  prairie  where  the 
grass  was  tall.  I  saw  the  gentleman  that  night, 
and  told  him  my  opinion  was  that  his  pointer 
was  in  that  piece  of  prairie,  standing  birds.  At 
break  of  day  the  sportsman  went  out  to  the 
place,  and  there  he  found  the  dog,  not  standing 
up  on  his  point — he  was  too  tired  for  that — but 
sitting  on  his  haunches.  The  grouse  still  lay  to 
him,  and  the  gentleman  flushed  it  and  shot  it. 
This  was  his  report  to  me.  1  saw  him  come  in 
the  previous  night  without  the  black  dog,  I  saw 
him  bring  him  home  in  the  next  forenoon,  and  1 
have  no  reason  to  doubt  his  veracity. 

My  famous  Fanny  died  at  work,  as  I  may  say. 
I  was  out  with  her  one  afternoon  when  there 
was  good  shooting,  and  finding  that  she  did 
not  want  to  continue  at  work,  I  put  her  into  my 
wagon,   and   drove   home.     She   did  not   appear  to 


288  FIELD    SHOOTINO. 

be  in  pain ;  but  as  she  had  been  in  apparent  good 
health  in  the  morning,  and  had  hunted  with  alacrity 
all  the  forenoon,  1  did  not  know  what  to  make  of 
it.  She  seenmed  to  lose  her  strength,  and  yet  I 
eould  not  see  any  signs  of  her  having  been  bitten 
by  a  poisonous  snake  or  the  like.  In  fact,  I  did 
not  believe  that  she  was  seriously  ill,  and,  having 
made  up  her  bed  nicely,  1  concluded  she  would  be 
better  in  the  morning.  Bot  that  night  she  died,  at 
nine  o'clock.  Fifteen  minutes  before  her  death  she 
got  up  on  her  legs  and  looked  at  me  very  ear- 
nestly, as  though  she  wanted  to  make  me  under- 
stand something.  She  then  lay  down  again,  and 
in  fifteen  minutes  died  easily.  I  had  never  left 
her  after  I  brought  her  home,  and  her  death  was 
the  cause  of  much  grief  in  the  family.  It  was  al- 
most as  if  we  had  lost  one  of  the  children.  I  do 
not  know  what  her  ailment  was,  but  believe  that 
she  had  an  internal  abscess,  the  bursting  of  which 
caused  her  death. 

The  best  age  to  begin  the  breaking  of  a  dog  is 
about  a  year,  in  my  judgment.  At  eight  or  nine 
months  old  it  is  well  enough  to  take  a  puppy 
out  to  the  field  in  a  wagon,  and  let  it  work  a 
little  with  an  old  dog.  Care  must  be  taken  that 
young   ones   do   not    work    much    in   the    hot    sun, 


SPORTING    DOGS BREEDING    AND    BREAKING.       289 

for  if  they  do  there  is  an  end  to  all  reasonable 
hopes  of  their  usefulness.  They  are  spoiled  for 
ever.  What  they  are  taught  about  a  house  or  a 
yard  is  merely  mechanical,  in  my  opinion,  and  of 
very  little  service  afterwards  in  the  field.  The 
field,  where  there  are  birds,  is  the  place  to  break 
dogs,  and  puppies  are  too  playful  and  too  soft  for 
the  real  breaking.  At  about  a  year  old  the  dog 
is  of  an  age  to  understand  what  is  wanted  of  him 
in  a  short  time,  and  also  fit  to  endure  the  correc- 
tion which  will  be  required  to  make  him  avoid 
faults.  It  is  better  to  begin  with  the  young  one 
in  company  with  an  old,  staunch  dog,  as  young 
dogs  are  imitative. 

Some  come  to  a  point  the  first  time  they  get , 
on  birds,  but  some  do  not,  although  their  power 
of  scenting  may  be  very  good.  Some,  when  the 
old  one  points,  run  in,  flush  the  birds,  and  then 
chase  them.  Many  men  think  this  grievous,  but 
I  invariably  look  upon  it  as  a  sign  that  the  dog 
will  make  a  good  one,  if  properly  handled  and 
treated.  Eagerness  in  the  young  dog  indicates 
that  the  hunting  instinct  is  strong,  and  then  it  only 
remains  necessary  to  develop  and  govern  it  hi 
the  proper  way.  Some  young  dogs  point  larks 
and    other   little    birds,   and   some   men  abhor  this, 


290  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

but  I  like  it.  It  indicates  a  good  nose  and  the 
instinct  to  stand  at  point  when  the  dog  finds,  and 
these  are  two  of  the  main  qualities  upon  which 
the  future  excellence  of  the  youngster  will  depend. 
The  best  dogs  I  have  ever  had  would  point  little 
birds  around  our  house  when  puppies.  The  in- 
stinct of  a  young,  unbroken  dog  does  not  instruct 
him  as  to  what  is  game  and  what  is  not.  They 
learn  that  in  breaking  and  in  after-use. 

When  a  young  dog  runs  m  eagerly,  there  is  no 
need  to  be  harsh  with  him  at  first.  It  will  be 
very  easy  to  break  him  of  that,  and  to  make  him 
comprehend  that  he  is  not  to  repeat  it.  My  plan 
is  to  get  young  dogs  eager  after  game,  and  then 
instruct  them  as  to  the  method  by  which  it  is  to 
be  pursued  and  killed.  Therefore  I  let  them  run 
in  and  chase  a  few  times.  The  worst  dogs  to 
break  are  timid  ones,  which  do  not  take  much 
notice  of  birds,  and  are  easily  cowed.  With  these 
the  utmost  care  and  patience  are  required.  With 
eager  dogs  after  a  little  while  I  endeavor  to  make 
them  understand  that  they  are  not  to  run  in  when 
the  old  dog  points,  but  to  back  him.  If  they  run 
in,  then  I  whip  them  a  little.  If  they  persist  in 
doing  so  after  that  correction,  I  take  another 
method.     Severe   whipping    does    not    answer    the 


SPORTING  DOGS BREEDING  AND  BREAKING.   291 

purpose  for  which  it  is  intended.  After  being 
whipped  once,  the  dog  runs  off  when  he  finds  he 
is  likely  to  be  whipped  again.  By  the  time  he 
is  caught  and  whipped  again  he  has  forgotten  all 
about  the  original  fault.  Now,  there  is  an  effec- 
tual way  to  punish  a  fault  at  almost  the  moment 
of  its  commission,  and  thus  to  cure  him  of  it 
without  half  the  punishment  of  severe  whipping. 

I  load  one  barrel  with  very  small  shot.  No.  10. 
When  the  dog  has  had  one  or  two  warnings,  and 
rushes  in  again  as  the  old  dog  stands  at  point,  I 
call  "  steady "  in  a  loud,  authoritative  tone  of 
voice.  Then  if  he  keeps  on,  flushes  the  birds, 
and  chases  them,  I  just  give  him  some  of  the 
No.  10  on  the  quarters.  Pie  will  be  at  a  good 
distance  off,  and  the  small  shot  will  sting  him 
sharply  through  his  hair,  but  will  not  penetrate 
his  tough  skin.  The  dog  knows  in  a  moment  what 
this  is  for.  One  lesson  is  generally  enough,  and 
the  second  is  always  effectual.  A  man  might 
almost  flay  the  hide  off  of  some  bold,  headstrong 
dog  with  whips  without  breaking  the  dog  to 
good  purpose.  My  method  obviates  the  necessity 
for  a  great  deal  of  punishment  with  the  whip,  and 
is  not  really  severe.  A  dog,  however,  should 
never   be   shot  at  with   larger   shot   than   No.   10, 


292  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

and  never  when  ho   ij  not  at  the  very   least   forty 
yards  from  the  gun. 

If  a  timid  dog  runs  in  and  chases  birds  after 
they  are  flushed,  let  him  do  so  for  days  without 
whipping  him  or  shooting  at  him.  The  thing 
for  him  is  encouragement  to  pursue  game  in  any 
manner  at  first ;  and  if  he  is  whipped,  he  slinks 
behind  his  master's  heels.  Therefore  his  con- 
fidence must  bo  increased  and  his  instinct  to 
hunt  somewhat  developed  before  he  is  taken  in 
hand  for  his  faults.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
bold,  headstrong  dog,  not  easily  cowed,  may  be 
quickly  brought  to  terms.  I  do  not  teach  my 
dogs  to  drop  to  shot,  or  down-charge,  but  I 
educate  them  to  stand  where  they  are  when  the 
gun  is  fired  until  told  to  go  on.  I  can  see  no 
use  in  their  dropping.  The  man  remains  stand- 
ing, why  not  the  dog?  And  besides,  in  hot 
weather,  where  the  grass  is  long  and  the  weeds 
tall  and  thick,  it  is  injurious  to  the  dog  to  lie 
doAVTi,  because  he  gets  less  air  than  he  does  on 
his  legs.  I  think  dropping  to  shot  and  down- 
charging  better  dispensed  with  in  these  days  of 
breech-loaders;  still,  I  do  not  mean  to  set  up  as 
an  authority  on  dog-breaking — I  simply  give  the 
results    of  my   own   experience    and   observations. 


SPORTING  DOGS BREEDING  AND  BREAKING.   293 

One  of  the  best  dogs  I  ever  owned  was  a  red 
setter,  named  Jack,  a  large,  strong,  upheaded 
dog.  I  bred  him  myself,  and  sold  him  when  a 
pup  to  a  butcher.  With  plenty  to  eat  and  no- 
thing to  do  he  grew  up  big,  and  was  always 
fat.  The  butcher  had  him  until  he  was  two 
years  old,  and  thought  a  good  deal  of  him, 
though  he  never  used  him  in  the  field  or  any- 
where else,  except  as  a  watch-dog  and  to  follow 
his  meat-wagon.  The  butcher  died  when  Jack 
was  two  years  old,  and  I  bought  him  of  the 
widow.  He  was  entirely  unbroken  when  I  took 
him  out  with  a  steady  old  dog.  The  latter  got 
a  point,  and  thereupon  Jack  ran  in,  flushed  the 
birds,  and  chased  them.  After  he  had  gone 
forty  or  fifty  yards  I  hallooed  at  him,  but  he 
did  not  notice  it.  I  knew  what  he  would  do, 
as  his  parents  were  both  high-headed,  bold-rang- 
ing dogs,  and  he  was  given  to  riotous  frolicking 
and  full  of  pluck.  I  had  loaded  both  barrels  of 
my  gun  expressly  for  his  benefit,  and  now  shot 
at  him.  The  distance  was  rather  long,  but  he 
M^as  well  stung.  Nevertheless,  he  did  not  mind 
it,  and  kept  on.  Thereupon  I  let  him  have  the 
other  barrel,  upon  which  he  came  back.  At  the 
next    point    at     pinnated    grouse    in    prairie-grass 


294  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

Jack  ran  in  again.  I  hallooed,  but  he  kept  on, 
and  again  I  shot  at  him ;  then  he  came  back. 
Once  again  he  started  to  run  in,  but  upon  my 
hallooing  "  Steady ! "  he  halted,  and  backed  the 
point  of  the  old  dog.  This  was  the  first  point 
he  ever  made  in  his  life,  and  he  hardly  knew 
whether  it  was  right  or  not.  I  went  up  and 
petted  him,  upon  which  he  give  indications  that 
he  understood  what  he  was  wanted  to  do.  From 
that  out  he  backed  the  old  dog  well.  He  was  a 
little  eager  afterwards,  but  upon  the  whole  1 
consider  him  to  have  been  the  easiest-broken 
dog  that  I  ever  handled. 

He  took  to  retrieving,  and  was  a  rare  good  one 
at  it;  in  duck-shooting,  one  of  the  best  I  ever 
had.  In  retrieving  ducks  he  went  at  a  gallop, 
swam  as  fast  as  he  could,  and  brought  in  the 
dead  at  his  best  pace.  There  was  no  loafing 
about  or  slow  walking  with  the  duck  in  his 
mouth  in  his  way  of  doing  the  work.  A  slow 
retriever  for  ducks  is  not  good.  While  he  is 
fooling  about  a  flock  or  two  of  ducks,  seeing 
him,  sheer  oflf,  and  the  shooter  loses  chances 
which  he  might  improve.  When  retrieving  grouse 
or  quail,  Jack  would  point  live  birds  with  a 
dead   cue   in   his  •  mouth.     He  was   very  eager   to 


SPORTING    DOGS BREEDING    AND    BREAKING.       295 

have  the  gun  kill,  and  at  length  appeared  to 
think  that  I  must  have  killed  something  every 
time  1  fired  a  shot.  This  uncommon  eagerness 
and  resolution  of  his  gave  rise  to  a  ludicrous 
incident. 

I  was  going  with  another  man  to  shoot  grouse 
late  in  the  fall,  and  we  had  Jack  and  two  other 
dogs  in  the  wagon.  A  flock  of  brant  were  upon 
the  prairie,  and  though  they  rose  far  off,  we  fired, 
but  did  not  kill.  Jack  jumped  out,  and  seemed 
to  think  it  impossible  that  there  was  nothing  killed 
or  wounded.  About  that  part  of  the  prairie  there 
were  some  poor,  lean  sheep  suflfering  from  foot-rot. 
Upon  one  of  the  smallest  of  these  little  sheep 
Jack  seized,  and  began  hauling  it  towards  the  wagon. 
I  thought  my  partner  would  almost  die  of  laugh- 
ing. I  made  Jack  leave  the  sheep  and  come  into 
the   wagon   again. 

I  afterwards  sold  this  dog  to  Benjamin 
McQueston,  a  gentleman  who  then  lived  at  Spring- 
field, Illinois,  but  who  now  lives  somewhere  in 
Kansas,  where  he  still  has  Jack.  I  ought  not  to 
have  parted  with  the  dog,  but  Mr.  McQueston 
was  very  anxious  to  get  him,  and  paid  a  good 
price,  for  our  part  of  the  country.  The  Avay  of 
it   was   this :    Four  of  us,  including  the  gentleman 


296  FIELD    SHOOTING. 

mentioned,  had  been  out  shooting,  and  were  re- 
turning along  the  road  with  a  wagon  and  team. 
Jack  had  performed  a  good  day's  work,  but  was 
still  full  of  spirit  and  vigor,  anxious  to  hunt. 
As  we  drove  along,  he  jumped  on  a  rail-fence  to 
leap  down  into  the  field  on  the  other  side,  and 
right  there  he  winded  a  bevy  of  quail.  With 
his  fore-feet  on  the  top  rail  and  his  hind  ones 
on  the  second  Jack  came  to  a  dead  point,  and 
made  as  pretty  a  one  as  was  possible  in  the 
position.  Thereupon  Mr.  McQueston  resolved  to 
have  him,  if  I  could  be  prevailed  upon  to  sell. 
There  is  not  a  dog  in  the  country  1  would  prefer 
to   Jack    to    breed    from. 

The  best  dog  I  have  now  is  Dick,  eight 
years  old  and  cross-bred,  being  the  produce  of  a 
setter-bitch  and  a  pointer-dog.  His  color  is  red, 
and  he  takes  after  the  setter,  but  has  thicker 
and  shorter  hair.  ,  He  is  a  capital  worker,  and 
an  excellent  dog  for  finding  game.  I  did  not 
breed  him  myself,  but  I  broke  him,  he  being  two 
years  old  when  I  got  him.  He  had  been  used 
in  the  field  a  little,  but  was  worse  than  if  he  had 
never  been  out  at  all.  I  found  him  a  high-headed, 
eager,  headstrong  dog,  such  as  I  always  think 
will   make   a  good   one.      I    brought  him  into   the 


SPORTING  DOGS BREEDING  AND  BREAKING.   297 

proper  way  of  working  by  stinging  him  with 
shot  once  or  twice  when  he  was  going  on  wrong. 
He  is  now  an  excellent  dog.  I  do  not  teach  my 
dogs  to  retrieve,  but  let  them  take  it  up  of  their 
own  accord  from  seeing  my  old  dogs  do  it. 
About  half  learn  to  retrieve  in  that  way.  They 
could    all    be    taught    to    do    so  easily  enough. 

The  most  thorough  dog-breaker  I  know  is  Miles 
Johnson,  of  Yardville,  New  Jersey.  He  has  a 
capital  place  to  keep  dogs,  and  is  a  perfect  master  of 
the  art  of  breaking  them,  retrieving,  and  everything 
else  which  may  be  thought  desirable.  I  recently 
saw  at  his  place  a  liver  and  white  setter  which 
he  has  broken  to  do  almost  anything.  This  is  the 
most  perfectly-educated  sporting  dog  I  ever  saw ; 
and  if  gentlemen  want  their  dogs  educated  in  this 
way,  Johnson  is  the  man  to  do  it. 

My  method  is  very  serviceable,  and  includes 
all  that  I  deem  essential,  but  many  would  want 
more  to  be  done  with  them.  There  is  one  thing 
sportsmen  should  always  persevere  in,  and  that 
is,  making  the  dog  perform  what  he  undertakes 
to  make  him  do.  1  never  let  a  dog  evade  doing 
what  1  have  set  out  to  make  lilm  do.  Your  dog^ 
mu.;t  1)3  made  to  understand  clearly  that  you  are 
the   master,   and    that  your  will  h   to  rule  their  in- 


298  FIELD    SHOOTINa. 

clinations.  When  Fanny  was  young  and  a  pretty 
good  dog,  retrieving  grouse  very  nicely,  on  one 
hot  morning  she  refused  to  find  and  bring  in  a 
grouse  I  had  shot.  She  ran  for  the  corn,  where- 
upon I  fired  over  her  and  stung  her  with  two  or 
three  straggling  shot.  She  kept  on,  however,  and 
bolted  for  home,  some  four  miles  distant.  I  knew 
that  would  never  do,  and,  jumping  into  my  buggy, 
I  drove  off  and  got  there  before  she  did.  When 
she  came  jogging  on,  she  seemed  astounded  at  see- 
ing me  there.  I  gave  her  a  few  cuts  with  the 
whip,  and  took  her  back  to  the  place  where  she 
had  misbehaved,  upon  which  she  found  the  dead 
bird,  and  brought  it  in.  If  I  had  passed  that  over, 
she  would  have  gone  off  again  on  some  day  when 
she  was  more  inclined  for  rest  than  work.  When 
a  dog  runs  off  instead  of  doing  what  he  is  required 
to  do,  bring  him  back  to  the  same  place,  no  mat- 
ter at  what  trouble,  and  compel  him  to  perform  it. 
If  young  sportsmen  neglect  this,  and  go  on  their 
way  rather  than  lose  a  little  time,  their  dogs  will 
find  it  out,  and  do  pretty  much  as  they  like.  It  is 
this  which  causes  many  dogs  which  have  really 
been  well  broken  to  turn  out  to  be  rascals  in 
their  owners'  hands. 

Cross-bred    dogs    are    seldom    good    beyond    the 


SPORTING  DOGS BREEDING  AND  BREAKING.   299 

first  cross,  though  some  bred  from  mine  and  the 
Scotch  sheep-dog  have  turned  out  very  well.  But 
the  sheep-dog  has  a  fine  nose  and  amazing  sagacity, 
with  a  grand  capacity  to  receive  education  and 
retain  its  fruits. 

The  first  dogs  I  shot  over  were  cocking-spaniels, 
and  I  do  not  believe  they  had  any  breaking  at  all. 
I  recently  visited  the  neighborhood  in  which  1 
learned  to  shoot  on  the  wing,  and  the  fine  farm 
of  Mr.  Jeremiah  Rundell,  at  Stockport,  on  the 
Hudson  River,  over  which  I  used  to  shoot.  With 
him  and  his  family  I  ate  some  splendid  apples, 
the  produce  of  an  orchard  whose  trees  I  helped 
to  plant  eighteen  years  ago. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


PIGKON-SHOOTINO. 


[  BEGAN  to  shoot  pigeons  in  1868,  when  I  had 
b<en  a  field-shot  for  more  than  eighteen  years.  1 
had  often  been  invited  to  go  and  witness  contests 
of  the  kind,  but  cared  nothing  for  them,  and  up 
to  1868  had  never  seen  a  pigeon-trap.  The  first 
public  pigeon-shooting  into  which  I  entered  was 
a  series  of  sweepstakes  at  St.  Louis.  I  had  some 
success ;  so  much,  in  foct,  that  R.  M.  Patchen, 
who  was  with  me,  forthwith  made  a  match,  in 
which  I  was  to  shoot  against  Gough  Stanton  of 
Detroit  for  $200  a  side.  Expenses  were  to  be 
paid  to  whomever  travelled  to  the  other,  and  he 
came  to  Elkhart.  The  match  was  fifty  birds  each. 
He  brought  with  him  a  plunge  trap,  the  first  I 
had  ever  seen  of  that  character.  However,  I  con- 
sented to  the  use  of  it,  and  won  by  killing  forty- 
six  to  his  forty.  I  was  then  just  about  as  good 
a  shot  at  pigeons  as  I  am  now,  except  that  I  was 
anxious  about  the  money,  and  sometimes  missed 
owing  to  that. 

800 


The  Champion  MedaL 


PIGEON-SHOOTING.  801 

I  next  shot  against  Abraham  Kleinman.  John 
Thomson,  a  stockman  of  Elkhart,  made  the  match 
on  my  part.  It  was  for  $200  a  side,  fifty  birds 
each  from  a  spring-trap.  There  was  a  dispute 
about  the  quantity  of  shot  to  be  used,  he  con- 
tending that  it  was  to  be  limited  to  an  ounce. 
We  made  a  sort  of  compromise,  by  which  I  was 
to  pull  my  own  trap,  while  he  was  allowed  a 
man  to  pull  for  him.  The  match  was  trap  and 
handle  for  each  other.  He  had  an  old  trapper 
named  Farnsworth  to  do  this  on  his  part,  while 
my  man,  as  afterwards  appeared,  did  not  know 
an  old  bird  from  a  young  one.  Before  we  began 
I  offered  to  bet  that  I  killed  forty-six  out  of 
fifty.  This  wager  was  eagerly  accepted  by 
Farnsworth,  who  wanted  to  bet  a  larger  sum 
on  the  point.  Kleinman  killed  forty-nine  and 
I  killed  forty-six.  I  told  Kleinman  that  I 
could  and  would  beat  him  before  long,  and  went 
home  to  practise  in  the  field.  I  challenged  him 
for  the  championship  of  Illinois,  and  we  shot 
for  1200  a  side,  at  fifty  single  birds  and  twenty- 
five  pairs  of  double  birds  each — the  single 
birds  ground-trap,  the  doubles  plunge-traps.  Of 
the  single  birds  1  killed  forty-three  to  Klein- 
man's  forty-two.     At   the  doubles  we  killed  forty- 


302  TRAP   SHOOTING. 

three  each.  It  was  at  Chioago  in  1868.  Soon 
after  I  shot  with  another  man  two  or  three 
times,  and  won ;  but  I  shall  not  mention  his 
name   in   this   book,   for   sufficient   reasons. 

The  next  match  I  took  up  with  Abraham 
Kleinman  was  rather  singular  in  character.  It 
was  at  single  and  double  birds.  I  was  to  shoot 
from  a  buggy  at  twenty-one  yards,  the  horse 
to  be  on  a  trot  or  run  when  the  trap  was 
pulled.  Kleinman  shot  from  the  ground  at  twenty- 
five  yards.  I  won  it.  I  afterwards  shot  two 
other  matches  on  these  conditions,  one  with  King 
at  Springfield,  and  one  with  Henry  Conderman 
at  Decatur.  Of  these  I  lost  one,  and  won  the 
other.  My  shooting  fi-om  a  buggy  at  plover, 
grouse,  and  geese  had  made  me  very  quick  and 
effective. 

In  the  spring  of  1869  R.  M.  Patchen  made 
a  match,  in  which  I  was  backed  to  kill  five  hun- 
dred pigeons  in  six  hundred  and  forty-five  min- 
utes, with  one  gun,  at  Chicago.  1  was  to  load 
my  own  gun,  and  the  stakes  were  $1,000  a  side. 
There  were  heavy  outside  bets  that  I  could  not 
do  it.  I  won  the  match,  however,  in  eight  hours 
forty-eight  minutes,  and  thus  had  one  hour  fifty-seven 
minutes   to   spare.     In   the    third   hundred   pigeons 


PIGEON-SHOOTING.  303 

1  killed  seventy-five  in  consecutive  shots.  In  the 
last  one  hundred  and  five  birds  I  scored  one 
hundred ;  and  in  the  seventh  hour  killed  ninety- 
five.  I  shot  with  a  muzzle-loader.  It  was  twenty- 
one  yards  rise  and  fifty  bounds.  Before  this 
match  came  off"  I  had,  in  practice,  killed  five 
hundred  birds  in  five  hours  and  seven  minutes; 
but  then  I  used  two  guns,  and  had  a  man 
to  clean  them,  though  I  loaded  them  myself. 
I  missed  thirty-four  out  of  the  whole  number 
shot  at. 

I  was  next  matched  to  kill  a  hundred  consecu- 
tive birds  at  Chicago  in  July,  1869;  81,000  to 
$100  that  I  could  not  do  it,  and  three  matches  to 
be  shot  if  I  failed  in  the  first  and  second.  In 
the  first  I  had  killed  thirty  when  the  lock  of 
my  gun  broke,  and  being  obliged  to  borrow  one 
which  was  a  poor  article,  I  lost.  On  the  21st  of 
the  month  I  tried  it  again,  and  won.  At  De- 
troit in  the  same  season  I  undertook  to  kill 
forty  birds  in  forty  minutes,  to  load  my  own 
gun,  and  gather  my  own  birds.  I  killed  fifty- 
three  in  twenty  minutes  forty  seconds,  and  won. 
In  the  foil  of  1869  I  shot  a  match  for  $1,000 
a  side  against  King  at  Chicago.  It  was  fifty 
single   birds   and  fifty  pairs  of  double  birds,  mak- 


304  TRAP    8H00TINO. 

ing  one  hundred  and  fifty  each,  plunge-traps, 
twenty-one  yards  rise.  I  killed  all  my  single 
birds.  Mr.  King  killed  forty-one  of  his.  I  killed 
eighty -five  of  my  double  birds,  Mr.  King  seventy- 
five  of  his. 

I  shot  and  won  a  great  many  matches  which 
I  need  not  mention  here.  In  1870,  Mr.  Nathan 
Doxie  challenged  any  man  in  Illinois  to  go  to 
his  place  and  shoot  against  him  for  $100  at 
twenty-five  birds.  1  went  there  and  killed  twen- 
ty-two to  his  twenty-one.  At  the  Chicago  tourna- 
ment I  killed  ten  straight  at  twenty-one  yards, 
as  did  several  others.  Under  the  conditions  we 
went  back  to  twenty-six  yards  to  shoot  the  ties 
off"  at  five  birds  each.  Mr.  G.  K.  Fayette,  of 
Toledo,  Ohio,  and  I  tied  four  times  more  at  this 
distance,  killing  all  our  birds.  I  then  killed  five 
more,  making  twenty-five  consecutive  birds  at 
twenty-six  yards.  Mr.  Fayette  killed  four  of  his 
last  five,  but  missed  the  fifth,  so  I  won.  Later 
on  I  shot  against  Mr.  J.  J.  Kleinman,  of  Chicago, 
at  five  traps,  fifty  birds,  mine  at  twenty-eight 
yards  rise,  his  at  twenty -five.  I  won,  and  in  the 
course  of  the  match  killed  thirty-three  consecu- 
tive birds. 

At   Detroit,  in    the    fall    of    1870,  I    shot    my 


PIGEON-SHOOTING.  305 

first  match  with  Ira  Paine,  of  New  York,  for 
$500  a  side.  It  was  a  hundred  birds  each,  twen- 
ty-one yards  rise,  eighty  bounds,  half  from  ground- 
traps,  half  from  plunge-traps.  We  shot  from  the 
ground-traps  first.  When  we  had  each  shot  at 
seventy  birds,  I  was  seven  ahead,  and  night  was 
coming  on,  so  Paine  gave  it  up.  At  that  time 
he  held  the  champion  badge,  and  exhibited  it  to  us 
at  Detroit,  whereupon  Doxie  told  him  to  make 
much  of  it,  for  that  I  would  go  to  New  York  to 
shoot  for  it  and  bring  it  away.  1  soon  after 
challenged  for  it,  and  on  the  twenty-fifth  of 
January,  1871,  we  shot  for  it  at  the  house  and 
grounds  formerly  kept  by  Hiram  Woodruff,  on 
Long  Island.  Paine  killed  eighty-eight  birds  to 
my  eighty-five,  and  retained  the  badge.  I  used  a 
breech-loader  in  that  match.  We  then  agreed  to 
shoot  at  one  hundred  birds  each,  ground-traps, 
for  six  consecutive  days,  the  stake  each  day  $500, 
and  either  party  refusing  to  go  on  to  the  end 
of  the  sixth  match  to  forfeit  $100.  On  the  first 
day  I  killed  eighty  to  Paine's  sixty-two,  and  then 
he  paid  forfeit  rather  than  go  on ;  but  he  backed 
John  Taylor  against  me  at  fifteen  single  birds 
and  ten  pairs  of  double  birds,  twenty-one  yards 
rise,  one  ounce    of  shot.      I    killed    fourteen  of  the 


306  TRAP    SHOOTING. 

single  birds;  Mr,  Taylor  killed  nine.  1  shot  at 
eight  pairs  of  double  birds,  and  killed  twelve- 
he  at  nine  pairs,  and  killed  ten,  and  then  gave 
up. 

On  that  same  visit  to  New  York  1  was  backed 
to  kill  forty-five  out  of  fifty,  with  leave  to  place 
the  trap  as  1  pleased.  The  arrangement  of  the 
trap  was  objected  to  by  Mr.  Robinson's  umpire, 
because  it  was  so  contrived  that  it  would  open 
towards  the  shooter  first.  The  referee  decided 
that  the  trap  could  not  be  so  placed,  and  I 
turned  the  trap  and  missed  six  out  of  ten, 
and  lost.  Thereupon  Mr.  De  Forrest  offered  to 
bet  $250  that  1  could  not  kill  forty-five  out  of 
fifty,  and  fix  the  trap  my  own  way.  It  was  not 
a  bad  bet  on  his  part,  for  the  difference  in  the 
mode  of  fixing  the  ground-trap  is  not  a  great 
advantage  to  the  shooter,  and  Mr.  Robinson  had 
brought  clipping-birds  for  me  to  shoot  at.  How- 
ever, I  scored  forty -six,  and  won. 

At  Lincoln,  Illinois,  I  shot  against  Abraham 
Kleinman  at  one  hundred  birds  each,  one  ounce 
of  shot,  and  each  of  us  killed  eighty-eight.  We 
had  not  birds  there  to  shoot  the  tie  off",  so  we 
adjourned  to  meet  at  Chicago,  where  he  killed 
ninety-one  and  I  killed  ninety,  losing  by  one  bird. 


PIGEON-SHOOTING.  307 

With  Ira  Paine  I  have  shot  ten  matches   and  won 
eight. 

One  other  match  I  shall  mention  here  because 
of  its  novelty.  At  Chicago  I  shot  against  four 
of  the  best  marksmen  in  Illinois.  The  gentlemen 
opposed  to  me  were  Abraham  Kleinman,  Abner 
Price,  D,  T.  Elston,  and  Benjamin  Burton.  They 
were  selected  to  shoot  in  company  at  fifty  birds 
each,  all  they  scored  to  form  an  aggregate,  while 
I  was  to  shoot  at  two  hundred  birds.  I  won  the 
match  by  killing  one  hundred  and  seventy-eight 
birds,  while  the  four  who  contested  it  with  me 
shot  exceedingly  well  themselves  by  scoring  one 
hundred  and  seventy-six. 

It  is  proper  that  I  should  give  here  a  few 
hints  to  the  members  of  new  shooting-clubs,  and 
to  some  of  those  who  belong  to  older  institu- 
tions, in  order  that  they  may  not  be  placed 
under  disadvantages  when  they  enter  upon  con- 
tests of  a  public  nature.  Since  I  began  to  shoot 
pigeons  I  have  travelled  a  great  deal,  shot  a 
great  deal,  and  observed  the  performances  of 
all  sorts  of  men.  The  one  great  thing  for  new 
clubs  to  observe  is  this :  that  in  their  shooting 
at  home,  whether  for  practice  or  in  contests 
with    each    other,    they   should    follow    the    rules 


308  TRAP    SHOOTING. 

of  pigeon-shooting,  and  not  go  on  under  loose, 
lax  methods.  It  is  essential  that  the  rule  as  to 
holding  the  gun  should  be  habitually  complied 
with — that  is,  the  butt  must  be  kept  below  the 
elbow  of  the  shooter  until  the  bird  is  on  the 
wing.  It  is  just  as  easy  to  conform  to  this 
rule  as  not,  provided  it  is  done  habitually  and 
constantly,  and  it  will  save  a  great  deal  of 
trouble  when  public  matches  or  sweepstakes  are 
engaged  in.  If  it  is  not  regarded  at  home  in  their 
own  clubs,  the  shooters  will  be  certain  to  have  birds 
decided  lost  which  they  have  killed,  when  shoot- 
ing elsewhere,  by  reason  of  breach  of  this  rule. 
When  several  men  are  shooting  at  home,  that 
is  the  place  to  learn  to  shoot  according  to  the 
rules.  If  they  are  disregarded,  the  club  and  its 
chosen  marksmen  will  pay  the  penalty  of  their 
neglect  another  day,  when  there  will  be  a  smart 
to  it. 

Therefore  I  say  it  is  better  for  members  of 
these  clubs  to  pay  for  a  few  birds  at  home,  by 
enforcement  of  the  rules,  than  to  be  beaten 
elsewhere  through  having  dead  birds  challenged 
for  improper  holding  of  the  gun.  I  have  acted 
as  referee  many  times,  and  have  seen  numbers 
of    birds    killed    in    such    a    manner    that    if   an 


PIGEON-SHOOTING.  309 

appeal  had  been  made,  I  should  have  been  com- 
pelled to  decide  against  the  shooters  for  having 
brought  up  the  gun  to  the  shoulder  too  soon. 
It  is  better  to  get  used  to  holding  the  gun 
well  down.  When  the  habit  is  formed,  a  man 
can  shoot  as  well  that  way  as  the  other,  and  then 
ha  will  not  be  bothered  and  confused  by  being 
challenged  under  the  rule  in  a  strange  place. 
Conform  to  the  rules  at  home,  and  it  will  be 
easy  to  observe  them  abroad.  Shooters  need  not 
suppose  that  they  will  not  be  enforced  in  other 
places  because  they  have  been  accustomed  to 
disregard    them    at   home. 

When  I  first  commenced  pigeon-shooting,  I 
lost  a  match  in  consequence  of  having  two  birds 
decided  against  me  for  holding  the  gun  above 
the  elbow  before  the  pigeons  flew.  Since  then 
I  have  always  been  careful  to  hold  the  gun 
well  down,  in  practice  as  well  as  in  matches 
and  sweepstakes.  Another  thing  to  be  noted  is 
this :  in  club-shooting,  where  eight  or  ten  of  the 
members  contend,  the  birds  should  be  assorted — 
Jhe  old  ones  put  into  one  basket  and  the  young 
ones  into  another ;  and  then  they  should  be  ap- 
portioned to  the  shooters  equally.*  When  the 
old   ones  and    the   young   are   all   mixed    up,  there 


310  TRAP    SHOOTTNO. 

is  an  element  of  chance  brought  in.  One  man  may 
happen  to  get  nearly  all  fast,  driving  birds,  and 
another  all  slow,  easy  ones.  Now,  that  is  nofc 
the  way  to  find  out  the  best  shooters.  The 
more  the  element  of  chance  is  admitted,  the  less 
likely  skill  with  the  gun  is  to  win.  A  fast^ 
driving  bird  is  killed,  but  gets  out  of  bounds, 
A  slow  one  is  not  hit  half  as  well,  but  drops 
inside,  and  is  scored.  But  the  man  who  lost 
his    bird   really   made    the   best   shot. 

If  I  had  to  make  rules  to  govern  pigeon- 
shooting,  I  should  establish  a  new  principle  by 
sweeping  away  an  old  but  mischievous  rule.  I 
would  adopt  the  Prairie  Club  rules  of  twenty-one 
yards  rise  for  siitglo  birds,  and  eighteen  for  double 
birds  ;  but  I  would  da  away  the  boundary  limifc 
altogether.  If  the  shooter  recovered  his  bird 
within  three  minutes,  he  should  count  it,  slibject, 
of  course,  to  the  rules  as  to  mode  of  recovery. 
When  a  man  makes  a  splendid  shot  at  a  fast,' 
driving  bird,  and  it  falls  dead  just  out  of  bounds,  it 
is  decided  against  him  by  the  arbitrary  nature  of 
the  rule  mcrcjy,  and  not  by  the  principles  of  rea- 
son and  sense.  I  have  no  individual  interest  to 
promote  by  suggesting  this  change.  I  find  my- 
self excluded    from    about   nine    out   of    every    ten 


PIGEON-SHOOTING.  311 

public  contests  by  reason  of  my  alleged  superi- 
ority, and  really  see  but  little  or  nothing  left  for 
me    to    do    save    defend    the    championship. 

Therefore  what  I  advance  is  prompted  solely 
by  considerations  for  the  sport,  for  the  benefit  of 
the  clubs,  and  for  the  advancement  and  reward 
of  real  skill.  There  is  no  other  way  of  absolutely 
determining  which  man  is  the  best  shot  on  the 
day  of  the  contest.  I  have  often  killed  birds 
which  fell  just  out  of  bounds,  riddled  through  and 
through  with  shot,  and  1  have  seen  other  men  do 
the  same.  Birds  hit  like  this,  with  seven  or 
eight  shot  in  each,  were  lost  by  a  few  feet,  some- 
times by  a  few  inches,  and  I  contend  that  this 
tape-line  rule  is  against  sense,  and  productive  of 
mischief.  I  have  seen  hundreds  of  birds  lost  under 
the  operation  of  it  which  were  as  well  hit  as  any 
birds  could  be,  so  far  as  the  skill  of  the  marks- 
man can  go.  On  the  other  hand,  1  have  seen 
easy,  slow-going  birds,  just  hit  with  one  or  two 
pellets  in  the  wing,  recovered  amongst  much  clap- 
ping of  hands  and  shouting  by  those  who  thought 
they  were    applauding   marksmanship. 

Eecently  the  Buffalo  gentlemen,  in  shooting  for 
the  Dean  Richmond  Cup,  had  their  chance  jeopard- 
ed   at    one    time    through   three    of    Mr.    Newoll's 


312  TRAP   SHOOTING. 

birds,  fast,  driving  ones,  falling  out  of  bounds, 
though  hit  clean  and  well.  And  in  my  opinion 
he  made  as  good  shots  at  them  as  at  any  that 
he  scored,  if  not  better.  Every  pigeon-shootei*  of 
large  experience  knows  that  matches  are  some- 
times lost  by  the  man  who  shoots  best,  because 
of  his  hard  luck  in  having  birds  fall  dead  just 
out  of  bounds.  Now,  there  ought  to  be  as  little 
chance  for  luck  in  contests  of  this  nature  as 
may  be  possible  to  contrive. 

I  have  many  times  killed  every  bird  I  shot  at,  but 
some  fell  out  of  bounds.  Now,  if  shooting  is  the 
thing  to  be  tested,  I  had  as  much  right  to  these, 
which  were  killed  by  the  gun,  as  to  those  which 
fell  inside.  At  Omaha,  last  June,  I  shot  at  fifty 
birds,  twenty  singles  and  fifteen  pairs  of  doubles. 
1  killed  all  the  single  birds,  but  lost  one  by  rea- 
son of  its  falling  a  little  out  of  bounds.  I  scored 
all  the  double  birds,  thus  making  forty-nine  out 
of  fifty,  and  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  senseless, 
arbitrary  rule  in  question,  1  should  have  scored 
all  the  fifty. 

The  fair  way  to  shoot  pigeons,  whether  in  clubs, 
m^ches,  or  sweepstakes,  is  from  II  and  T  traps,  no 
matter  whether  ground,  plunge,  or  spring  traps. 
In  matches,  the   birds   being  in  the  traps,  and    the 


PIGEON-SHOOTING.  Sl0 

shooter  ready,  the  referee  tosses  up  a  coin.  If 
it  comes  head,  the  shooter  takes  the  H  trap  and 
his  opponent  the  other.  If  it  comes  tail,  the 
effect  is  the  reverse.  In  club-shooting  and  in 
sweepstakes  as  many  wads  are  numbered  as  there 
are  shooters.  The  referee  places  these  in  his 
pocket,  and  after  shaking  them  up  pulls  one  out. 
The  man  whose  number  on  the  list  corresponds 
to  the  number  on  the  wad  takes  the  bird  in  the 
trap.  That  wad  is  then  transferred  to  the  other 
pocket.  After  the  shot  another  wad  is  drawn,  and 
so  on  until  all  have  shot,  when  the  wads  will  all 
be  in  one  pocket,  and  the  same  thing  is  to  be 
done  imtil  the  shooting  is  at  an  end.  By  this 
means  all  trickery  and  favoritism  in  selecting 
birds  for  certain  of  the  shooters  is  made  impossible. 
I  shall  now  append  the  scores  of  the  nine 
championship  matches  by  which  the  possession  of 
the  badge  has  been  determined.  The  rules  under 
which  it  was  held  and  shot  for  will  be  given  here- 
after. It  was  required  to  be  held  for  two  years 
against  all  comers  before  it  became  the  property 
of  the  holder.  I  have  held  it  over  three  years 
now,  having  put  it  up  again  last  spring,  when  John 
J.  Kleinman  shot  against  me  for  it  at  Joliet, 
Illinois. 


314  TRAP    SHOOTING. 

It  was  first  shot  for  at  Mark  Rock,  Rhode 
Island,  at  thirty -five  birds  each ;  entries  :  Miles  L. 
Johnson  of  New  Jersey,  Edward  Tinker  of  Rhode 
Island,  Perry  Aldridge  of  Rhode  Island,  Ira  A. 
Paine  of  New  York,  J.  R.  Brown  of  Buffalo,  and 
John  Taylor  of  New  Jersey.  It  came  off"  April  7, 
1870,  and  was  won  by  Johnson,  the  score  being  as 
follows : 

Johnson— 1 1011111110111111111011111 
11111111  1—32. 

TAYI.OR— 0  1100111111101111110111111 
11111111 1—30. 

Tinker— 1  1 111011101111111011010111 
11111111  1—30. 

Paine— 1  11110011011011110110111111 
0  111111 1—28. 

Brown  —  1 1101111111110111111000110 
0  1111011  1—27. 

Aldridge— 1 111101110101001111111111 
110111011  0—27. 

Paine  challenged  Johnson,  the  holder  of  the 
badge,  and  they  shot  at  one  hundred  birds  at 
Fleetwood  Park,  New  York,  September  28,  1870. 
Paine  won  as  follows : 

Paine— 1  11111111011111110110001111 
111111110111111011111111110111111 
0.1  1111111101111101111101111111101 
101011 1—85. 


PIGEON-SHOOTING.  315 

JOHHSON  — 1  101001111111100100001111 

1111110100011101101111111  lllllllO 
000111111111111101111110111111111 
11111011  0-77. 

Tinker  challenged  Paine,  and  they  shot  at  Fleet- 
wood Park,  October  29,  1870.  Paine  won  as  fol- 
lows : 

Paine— 1  11111101111111111111100111 
111111111111111111111111100111110 
110110111111101101111011101110111 
111101  1—86. 

Tinker— 1  1011111101111110001101111 
110101010110111111111101111111111 
111110011011101111111111011111111 
1101111  0—81. 

A.  H.  Bogardus  of  Illinois  challenged  Paine, 
and  they  shot  at  Hiram  Woodruff's  old  place  on 
Long  Island,  January  25,  1871,  when  Paine  won 
as  follows : 

Paine— 1 11111111011111011111111111 
111111111111111111111011001111111 
111001101011111111111111011011101 
1 1  1  1  1  1  1—88. 

Bogardus— 1 111111110011111111111101 
111010110111110101110111111111111 
lllOllOlllllllOllllllllOlllOlllll 
11111011  1—85. 


316  TRAP    SHOOTING. 

Bogardus  challenged  Paine,  and  they  shot  at 
Fleetwood  Park,  May  23,  1871,  when  Bogardus 
won  as  follows  (besides,  he  killed  seven  which 
fell  out  of  bounds)  : 

Bogardus— 1  lllllllOllllllllOlllIlll 
111111111111011111101111011101111 
101111110110011111111111111010111 
10111111 1—87. 

Paine— 1 11011111111111111111111110 
101101111111111110100110111011011 
0  10111111111111101111111111111011 
111111 1—86. 

Paine  challenged  Bogardus,  and  they  shot  at 
Dexter  Park,  Chicago,  July  29,  1871.  Bogardus 
won  as  follows : 

Bogabdus— 1 111111110111111111101111 
111111111111111110111111111111011 
111101101111111111101111111111111 
11101110  1—91. 

Paine— 1 11111111101111111111111011 
111111111101110101101110111111111 
111111111111100111111111111111101 
1110111—89. 

Abraham  Kleininan  of  Illinois  challenged  Bo- 
gardus, and  they  shot  at  Dexter  Park,  Chicago, 
April  6,   1872,  when  Bogardus  won  as  follows: 


PIGEON-SHOOTING.  317 

BOGAEDUS— 1  111101111111111011111111 
111101111111111111101111111111011 
111111111111101111111111111111111 
11111110  1—93. 

Klbinmajs  —  1  11111111111011111111110 
111111111111111111111111101111111 
111110111110111111011101111111110 
111011011  0—89. 

[These  are  the  official  aggregates  of  the  match, 
but  not  of  the  details,  which  could  not  be  ob- 
tained.] 

Abraham  Kleinman  challenged  Bogardus  again, 
and  they  shot  at  Dexter  Park,  Chicago,  in  Sep- 
tember, 1872,  when  Bogardus  won  as  follows : 

BOGAKDUS— 1  101101111111111011110101 
111101101111111101101011111111001 
111111111111111111111111111010111 
1110  1111  1—85. 

Kleinman  —  1  11111110110111101111011 
111001111111110110111111111111111 
110111110011111101111111111111110 
111101011  0—84. 

Tinker  of  Rhode  Island  challenged  Bogardus, 
imd  they  shot  May  15,  1873,  at  Dexter  Park, 
Chicago,  where  Bogardus  won  as  follows : 


318  TRAP  SHOOTING. 

BOGAKDTJS— 1  110111011110111111111111 
111111111111111111111111101111101 
111110010111111011111110111101111 
01111111  0—87. 

Tinker— 1  1110111111111111111111111 
011111100111111110101111111111011 
111001111111010100111111111110101 
11110  11  1—85. 

Bogardus  having  now  held  the  badge  over  two 
years,  it  became  his  property.  He  put  it  up 
again  under  the  rules  which  are  inserted  hereafter. 
John  J.  Kleinman,  of  Chicago,  entered  to  contend 
for  it,  and  Bogardus  and  he  shot  at  Joliet  on 
the  twentieth  of  March,  when  Bogardus  won.  It 
remains  with  Bogardus,  and  will  be  open  to  chal- 
lenge up   to   twentieth  of  March,  1876. 

The  scores  of  a  few  of  my  best  matches,  other 
than  for  the  championship,  are  given  below,  and 
also    some    of  my  time    matches : 

Bogardus  against  King  at  Chicago,  Dexter  Park, 
1869,  single  birds,  fifty  each,  and  fifty  pairs  of 
double  birds  each,  §1,000  a  side,  twenty-one 
yards  rise.  This  was  the  first  match  in  which 
Bogardus  shot  with  a  breech-loader.  It  was  one 
of  the    best  scores  he  ever  made,  all  at  21   yards. 


PIGEON-SHOOTING.  -     SIO' 

SINGLE   BIRDS. 
BOGARDtrfr— 1  111111111111111111111111 

111111111111111111111111  1—50  out  of  50. 
King— 1  111111100101111101111100101 
1111111010111111111  1—41  out  of  50. 

DOUBLE  BIBDS. 
B0GAIIDTJ&— 11  11  11  11  11  10  11  11  11  10  11  10  11  11  10 
11  11  11  11  11  10  11  11  11  01  10  11  11  01  11  11  11  11  11  11  11 

11 11  10  11  10  10  10  10  10  11  10  11  11  11—80. 

King— 10  11 11 11 10  11  11  11  10  11  00  10  11  10  11  10  11 
11  11 10  11 10  01  10  11 11 11  11  11  10  11  11  11  00  00  11  11 
10  10  11  11  11  10  10  00  10  11  11  10  11—75. 

The  following  is  the  score  of  the  match  against 
time,  shot  at  Dexter  Park,  Chicago,  May  15,  1869, 
in  which  I  undertook  to  kill  five  hundred  pigeons 
in  ten  hours  and  forty-five  minutes  with  one  gun, 
and  load  my  own  gun.  I  did  it  in  eight  hours 
and  forty-eight  minutes,  with  1^  of  shot,  ground 
trap. 

First  Hundred  —  llllllOlOQOllllOlllH 
11 1101011101110100111110011  101  11  I 
0  11110000101011101001101111011111 
111011111011110100111101111110111 
111110101111011  1—136  shot  at ;  36  missed. 

Second  Hundred  —  1  0111010110110101111 
111110101101111111111111011001011 
lOlllllOllOlllOllllOllOlllllllllQ 
1111101001010110100011011010111, 10 
11111111010110111  0  0--i;«  shot  at ;  38  missed. 


320  trap  shooting.  • 

Third  Hundred— 0  11010101011010111010 
100111111001111111111111111111111 
111111111111111111111111111111111 
11111111111111111111011111  1—114  shot 
at ;  14  missed. 

Fourth  Hundred— 1  1111111101111011111 
110111111111101110101111111110111 
100111011111111111111111111111111 
11111011111111111011111111  —  112  shot 
at ;  13  missed. 

Fifth  Hundred— 1  11011111111111111110 
111111111111111111111111111111111 
111111111111011111111111111111111 
1  1111110111111011  1—105  shot  at  ;  5  missed. 
Time— 8h.  48m. 

Score  of  the  match  to  kill  one  hundred  birds 
in  one  hundred  successive  shots,  and  load  as  I 
pleased,  shot  at  Dexter  Park,  Chicago,  July  21, 
1869 : 

111111111111111111111111111111111 
111111111111111111111111111111111 
1111111111111111111111111111111111 

Below  will  be  found  the  scores  of  a  few  exhi- 
bition matches  shot  by  me  within  a  year. 

At  Jersey ville,  Illinois,  1873,  to  kill  fifty  birds 
in  eight  minutes : 

111111111111111111111011111111111 
11111111111111111111  1—53  out  of  54 
Time  of  shooting — 4m.  45s. 


PIGEON-SHOOTINa.  321 

Captain  A.  H.  Bogardus,  match  at  Paris,  Ky., 
April  14,  1874,  to  kill  fifty  pigeons  in  eight  min- 
utes : 

11  11  11  11  11  11  11  11  10  10  10  11  11  11  11  10  11  11  11  11 
11  11  11  11  00  11  11  11  00  11  11  11  10  10  — Killed,  58; 
misses,  10  ;  number  shot  at,  68  ;  time  of  shooting,  7m. 

Match  at  Stamford,  Conn.,  1874,  to  kill  thirty- 
eight  out  of  fifty  birds,  two  traps  forty  yards 
apart,  to  be  pulled  at  the  same  time,  and  the 
shooter  to  stand  between  the  traps.  Ira  Paine 
trapped  the  birds: 

10  11  10  11  10  11  11 11  11  11  11 11  11  11  11  11  11  11 11 10 
11— Killed  38  out  of  42. 

Match  at  Omaha,  purse  of  $150,  same  condi- 
tions as  at  Stamford  ;  shot  June  19,  1874 : 

11  11  11  11  10  11  11  11  10  11  11  11  11  11 11 11  11  10  11  10 
11  10— Killed  39  out  of  44. 

Score  made  by  me  on  the  same  day  in  a  sweep- 
stakes : 

Single  Birds— 1  111111111101111111 1—19 
killed,  1  missed. 

Double  Birds— 11  11  11  11  11  11  11  11  11 11  11  11  11  11 
11—30  killed. 

Aggregate — 49  out  of  50, 


322  TRAP    SHOOTING. 

Match  at  Washington,  D.  C,  July  20,  1874,  on 
the  grounds  of  the  Shooting  Club.  Colonel  Alex- 
ander pulled  the  traps,  which  were  forty  yards 
apart : 

11 11  11  11  11  11  11  11  11  11  11  10  11  11  11—29  out  of  30. 

In  this  match  at  Washington  I  shot  with  the 
Orange  powder  of  Laflin  &  Rand,  New  York, 
No.  7  Lightning,  and  found  it  strong  and  clean, 
and  better  than  any  I  ever  used  before.  I  shot 
at  one  bird  full  seventy -five  yards  off,  let  go  by 
an  outsider,  and  killed  it  dead.  It  is  coarse- 
grained, burns  even,  does  not  recoil  much,  and 
shoots    strong. 

CHALLENGES     FOR     FIELD     AND     TRAP    SHOOTING. 

The  following  challenges,  made  by  me,  and 
published  in  the  sporting  papers,  were  not  ao- 
cepted : 

(From  the  Chicago  Tribune.) 
A     CHALLENGE. 

I  hereby  challenge  any  man  in  America  to 
shoot  a  pigeon  match,  fifty  single  and  fifty  double 
rises,  for  from  $500  to  15,000  a  side,  accord- 
ing to  the  rules  of  the  New  York  Sportsmen's 
Association ;    1  to  use  my   breech-loading   shot-gun, 


PIGEON-SHOOTING.  323 

and  my  opponent  to  use  any  breech-loading  gun 
of  any  manufacturo  he  may  choose.  The  match 
to  be  shot  iii  Chicago.  Man  and  money  ready 
at  my  place  of  business,  No.  72  Madison  Street, 
Chicago.  A.  H.  Bogardus. 

Chicago,   Sept.   10,  1869. 

challenge  for  field  shooting. 
To   the    Editor    of   the    Chicago    Tribune  : 

I  hereby  challenge  any  man  in  America  to 
shoot  prairie-chickens  against  me,  in  the  field, 
during  the  month  of  November,  to  shoot  for 
one  or  two  weeks,  on  the  same  ground,  for  a 
stake  of  from  $100  to  $500  a  side.  The  man 
who  kills  the  most  during  the  time  specified  to 
take   all   the   game   and    the    stakes. 

A.  II.  Bogardus. 

CmcAGO,   Sept.   22,   1869. 

challenges    for    field    and    pigeon    shooting. 

Editors    Tuuf,    Field,    and    Farm  : 

I  notice  in  vour  issue  of  the  3d  inst.  an  ac- 
ceptance of  my  challenge,  which  was  issued  last 
October.  This  is  the  first  I  have  ever  seen  of 
it,  and  that  time  has  gone  by ;  and  if  Mr. 
Murphy     wished     to     shoot     with     me,     he     could 


8S4  TRAP   SHOOTING. 

have  easily  dropped  me  a  few  lines,  and  I 
would  have  hunted  with  him.  But  all  I  can 
say  now  is  (to  Mr.  Murphy  or  any  other  man 
living),  that  I  will  make  a  match  to  shoot  In 
the  field  for  two  or  four  weeks  next  November; 
the  kind  of  game  to  be  prairie-chickens,  the 
hunting  to  take  place  on  strange  groimd  to  both 
parties,  and  the  stakes  from  $500  to  $2,000  a 
side,  to  himt  through  the  day-time  and  sleep  at 
night,  and  not  to  take  any  advantage  of  the 
game ;  and  also,  if  the  party  who  accepts  this 
challenge  choose,  that  every  bird  has  got  to  be 
killed  on  the  wing;  and  if  either  party  kill 
birds  sitting,  to  count  three  against  him. 

Now,  if  Mr.  Murphy  and  his  friends  think 
that  I  am  playing  a  game  at  bluff,  let  them 
send  a  forfeit  to  the  Turf^  Fields  and  Farm, 
and  I  will  cover  it.  The  match  to  come  off 
in  November  next  in  Illinois,  Iowa,  Minne- 
sota, or  Kansas,  or  any  other  place  where  we 
can  find  plenty  of  chickens.  The  man  who  wins 
to  take  the  proceeds  of  all  chickens  shot  by 
both   parties.     Yours  very  truly, 

A.    H.    BoGARDtrS. 

N.B. — 1  hereby  challenge  any  man  in  the  world 


PIGEON-SHOOTING.  325 

to  shoot  a  match  at  pigeons,  one  hundred  single 
and  fifty  double  rises,  for  a  stake  of  $1,000  to 
$2,000  a  side ;  the  birds  to  be  put  into  one 
basket  or  box,  and  trap  and  handle  out  of 
same  lot  of  birds,  or  from  H  and  T  traps,  one  or 
one  and  a  half  ounce  shot.  Will  give  or  take 
expenses.  A.  H.  B. 

Elkhabt,  III.,  May  8,  1872. 


Mules  governing   the  Badge  field  hy  the  Cham- 
pion  Pigeon-Shooter  of  America. 

We,  the  undersigned,  contestants  for  the  badge 
of  the  championship  of  America,  given  by  the 
Rhode  Island  Sportsman's  Club,  do  hereby  pledge 
ourselves  and  agree  to  the  following  rules  and 
regulations,  whenever  and  wherever  said  badge  is 
contested  for : 

1.  The  winner  of  the  badge  shall  give  a  satisfactory 
guarantee  to  the  officers  of  the  Rhode  Island  Sports- 
man's Club  for  the  safety  thereof,  in  the  shape  of 
a  responsible  surety. 

2.  The  winner  shall  pledge  himself  to  shoot 
any  challenger  for  a  sum  not  less  than  $500  a 
side,  within  four  months  of  the  date  of  said 
challenge,  under  penalty  of  forfeiting  the  badge. 


32G  TRAP    SHOOTING. 

3.  Any  party  challenging  the  holder  of  this 
badge  shall  make  a  deposit  of  8250  as  a  forfeit 
for  a  match  of  $500  a  side,  in  the  hands  of  the 
editor  of  the  Spirit  of  the  Times,  to  be  covered 
by  the  challenged  party  with  an  equal  amount. 
The  balance  of  the  money,  $250  a  side,  shall 
be  deposited  in  the  hands  of  the  said  editor  of 
the  Spirit  of  the  Times,  or  some  party  ap- 
pointed by  him,  three  days  before  the  match  is 
shot ;  said  match  then  becoming  play  or  pay. 
In  case  of  the  holder  not  complying  with  the 
foregoing  conditions,  he  shall  forfeit  the  badge  to 
the  party  challenging. 

4.  Every  contestant  for  this  match  shall  pledge 
himself  to  contend  for  the  same  under  the  rules 
of  the  Rhode  Island  Sportsman's  Club  governing 
pigeon-shooting. 

5.  All  matches  for  this  badge  shall  be  at  one 
hundred  single  birds  each,  H  and  T  ground-traps. 

6.  In  all  matches  in  which  this  badge  is  con- 
tested for,  the  referee  shall  be  an  officer  in  the 
Rhode  Island  Sportsman's  Club,  or  a  party  ap- 
proved   by    them. 

7.  The  holder  of  the  badge  shall  name  the 
place  where  the  same  shall  be  contested  for, 
which   shall   be   also   satisfactory  to   the   referee. 


PIGEON-SHOOTING.  327 

8.  Each  contestant  in  any  match  for  this  badge 
shall  provide  not  less  than  one  hundred  and  ten 
birds  for  the  match,  and  the  birds  shall  be 
taken  out  of  one  contestant's  basket  or  box  till 
the  same  is  exhausted,  and  then  the  other  con- 
testant's basket  or  box  shall  be  used  out  of  till 
that  is  exhausted,  and  so  on  alternately  through 
the    match. 

9.  Having  tossed  for  first  shot  and  trap,  the 
second  party  shooting  shall  take  the  bird  in  the 
remaining  trap,   and  so   on  through   the  match. 

10.  The  party  holding  this  badge  for  two 
years  against  all  contestants,  it  shall  become  his 
personal  property. 


Mules  of  the  Rhode  Island  Sportsman's  Club  for 
Trap  Shooting. 

1.  Traps,  Rise  and  Bounds. — All  matches  shall 
be  shot  from  H  and  T  ground-traps,  the  choice 
of  which  the  referee  shall  decide  by  toss. 

The  boundaries  shall  be  eighty  yards  for  single 
birds,  and  one  hundred  yards  for  double  birds ; 
which,  in  single-bird  shooting,  shall  be  measured 
from    a   point    equidistant   from,   and   in    a    direct 


328  .    TRAP    SHOOTING. 

line  between  the  two  traps  ;  in  double-bird  shoot- 
ing, from  a  point  equidistant  from,  and  in  direct 
line  between,  the  centre  traps. 

2.  Placing  the  Traps. — In  single-bird  shooting 
the  distance  between  the  traps  shall  be  four  yards ; 
in  double-bird  shooting,  as  four  traps  are  used, 
the  H  and  T  traps  shall  be  set  alternately,  and 
two  yards  apart. 

3.  Scoring. — After  the  party  is  at  the  score 
and  ready  to  shoot,  he  shall  take  the  bird  or  birds, 
unless  barred  by  the  referee. 

The  party  at  the  score  must  not  leave  it  to 
shoot,  and  must  hold  the  butt  of  his  gun  below 
his  elbow  until  the  bird  or  birds  rise  ;  and  in  case 
of  infraction  of  this  provision,  the  bird  or  birds 
shall  be  scored  as  missed. 

4.  Rising  of  Birds. — All  birds  must  be  on  the 
wing  when  shot  at;  all  contingencies  of  misfire, 
non-explosion  of  cap,  gun  not  cocked,  etc.,  etc.,  are 
at  the  risk  of  the  party  shooting. 

5.  Recovering  Birds. — It  shall  be  optional  with 
the  party  shooting  to  recover  his  own  birds,  or 
appoint  a  person  for  that  purpose. 

In  all  cases  the  birds  shall  be  gathered  by 
hand,  without  the  use  of  extraneous  means,  within 
three   minutes   from   the     time    it    alights,    or    be 


PIGEON-SHOOTING.  329 

scored   a  miss.     A  bird  once  out  of  bounds  shall 
be  scored  a  miss. 

6.  Loading. — The  charge  of  shot  shall  not  ex- 
ceed one  ounce  and  a  half.  All  guns  shall  be 
loaded  from  the  same  charger,  except  in  case 
of  breech-loaders,  when  the  referee  may  open  one 
or  more  cartridges  to  ascertain  if  the  charge  of 
shot  is  correct.  Any  party  infringing  this  rule 
shall  lose  the  match. 

7.  Ties. — In  case  of  a  tie  at  single  birds,  the 
distance  shall  be  increased  five .  yards,  and  shall 
be  shot  off  at  five  birds  each.  In  case  of  a 
second  tie,  the  distance  shall  be  again  increased 
five  yards,  and  this  distance  shall  be  maintained 
till  the  match  is  deci4ed.  The  ties  in  double-bird 
shooting  shall  be  shot  off  at  twenty-one  yards,  with- 
out any  increase,  at  five  double  rises. 

8.  Judges  and  Referee. — ^Two  judges  and  a 
referee  shall  be  appointed  before  the  shooting 
commences.  The  referee's  decision  shall  be  final. 
He  shall  have  power  to  call  "  No  bird,"  in  case 
any  birds  fail  to  fly,  and  may  allow  a  contestant 
another  bird,  in  case  the  latter  shall  have  been 
balked  or  interfered  with,  or  may  for  any  reason 
satisfactory  to  the  referee  be  entitled  to  it. 

In    case   of  any    unnecessary    delay    on  the  part 


330  TRAP    SHOOTING.  / 

of  either  of  the  contestants,  the  referee  shall  or- 
der the  party  so  delaying  to  the  score,  and,  in 
case  of  his  failing  to  comply  within  five  minutes, 
said  party  shall  lose  the  match. 

If  a  bird  should  fly  towards  parties  within  the 
bounds,  in  such  a  manner  that  to  shoot  at  it  would 
endanger  any  person,  another  bird  will  be  allowed ; 
and  if  a  bird  is  shot  at  by  any  person  besides 
the  party  at  the  score,  the  referee  shall  decide 
how  it  shall  be  scored,  or  whether  a  new  bird 
shall   be   allowed. 


Mules  governing  the  JBadge  held  by  the  Champion 
Pigeon- Shooter   of  America. 

We,  the  undersigned,  contestants  for  the  Badge 
of  the  Championship  of  America,  given  by  Cap- 
tain A.  H.  Bogardus,  do  hereby  pledge  ourselves 
and  agree  to  the  following  rules  and  regulations, 
whenever  and  wherever  said  badge  is  contested 
for: 

1.  The  winner  of  the  badge  shall  give  a  satis- 
factory guarantee  to  Captain  A.  H.  Bogardus  for 
the  safety  thereof,  in  the  shape  of  a  responsible 
surety. 

2.  The    winner    shall    pledge    himself    to    shoot 


PIGEON-SHOOTING.  331 

any  challenger,  for  a  sum  not  less  than  $250  a 
side,  within  two  months  of  the  date  of  said  chal- 
lenge, under  penalty  of  forfeiting  said  badge. 

3.  Any  party  challenging  the  holder  of  this 
badge  shall  make  a  deposit  of  $125,  as  a  forfeit 
for  a  match  of  $250  a  side,  in  the  hands  of  the 
editor  of  the  Spirit  of  the  Times,  to  be  covered 
by  the  challenged  party  with  an  equal  amount. 
The  balance  of  the  money,  $125  a  side,  shall  be 
deposited  in  the  hands  of  the  editor  of  the  Spirit 
of  the  Times,  or  some  other  party,  mutually 
agreed  upon  by  both  parties,  three  days  before 
the  match  is  shot ;  the  match  then  becomes  play 
or  pay.  In  case  of  the  holder  not  complying 
with  the  foregoing  conditions,  he  shall  forfeit  the 
badge  to  the  party   challenging. 

4.  Every  contestant  for  this  badge  shall  pledge 
himself  to  contend  for  the  same  under  the  rules 
of  the  Prairie  Shooting  Club  of  Chicago,  with  .the 
exception  that  the  single  birds  must  be  shot  from 
ground-traps. 

5.  All  matches  for  this  badge  shall  be  at  one 
hundred  pigeons,  fifty  single  and  twonty-five  double 
rises,  from  H  and  T  traps — the  single  from 
ground-traps  and   the  double  from  ]>lunge-traps, 

C.    The     holder    of    this    badge    shall    name    tho 


332  TRAP    SHOOTINU. 

place  where  the  same  shall  be  contested  for,  and 
each  contestant  shall  furnish  one  hundred  and  ten 
pigeons  for  the  match,  and  the  pigeons  shall  be 
taken  out  of  the  same  basket  or  box  until  the 
same  is  exhausted,  and   so   on   through   the  match. 

7.  Having  tossed  for  first  shot  and  trap,  the 
second  party  shooting  shall  take  the  bird  or  birds 
in  the  remaining  trap  or  traps,  and  so  on  through 
the   match. 

8,  The  party  holding  this  badge  for  two  years 
against  all  comers,  it  shall  become  his  personal 
property. 

Entries  for  the  badge  will  be  $50,  and  the 
winner  of  the  badge  to  receive  half  the  money, 
and  the  other  half  to  go  to  the  second  best. 
The  first  match  to  take  place  the  20th  day  of 
March,    1874. 


The  National  Champion  Badge. 

Donated  by  Louis  L.   Lorillard,   Esq.,  and  In- 
stituted by  the  "  Spirit  of  the    Times." 

The  holder  of  this  badge  shall  leave  a  re- 
sponsible security  in  the  office  of  "Wilkes's  Sjnrit 
of  the  TimeSy  for  the  forthcoming  of  the  same 
whenever   called   for. 


PIGEON-SHOOTING.  333 

He  shall  shoot  as  often  as  once  in  three  months, 
if  challenged,  for  not  less  than  $500  a  side 
— that  is  to  say,  in  one  week  from  the  time 
of  the  decision  of  any  match  the  winner 
of  the  badge  may  be  challenged  again — and 
he  shall  shoot  within  three  months  from  the 
date  of  the  challenge.  He  shall  have  the  naming 
of  the  place  and  time  of  shooting,  subject  to  the 
approval     of    the    editor    of    the    ^Spirit    of    the 

In  all  eases  he  shall  cover  the  money  of  the 
challenging  party  within  one  month,  and  name 
time  and  place  of  shooting,  or,  in  failing  to  do  so, 
shall  forfeit  the  badge  to  the  party  challenging. 
Any  party  holding  the  badge  for  two  years,  it 
shall    become    his    personal    property. 

Any  party  challenging  for  this  badge  shall  de- 
posit $250  in  the  hands  of  the  editor  of  the 
Spirit  of  the  Times  as  one-half  forfeit.  All 
the  money  from  both  parties  to  be  up  in  said 
office  one  week  previous  to  date  of  shooting, 
when  the  match  becomes  play  ©r  pay.  Either 
party  may  compel  the  other  to  go  to  the  score 
not    later    than    one    o'clock    p.m. 

The  mrlches  for  this  badge  shall  be  shot  ac- 
cording to  the  English  rules,  as  modified  and  pub- 


834  TRAP   SHOOTING. 

lished  below,  at  fifty  single  birds  each,  each  party 
to  bring  not  less  than  seventy  birds  on  the 
ground. 

Either  party  may  trap  and  handle  Ms  quota 
of  birds,  or   furnish   a   substitute. 

The  party  commencing  to  trap  shall  continue 
until  the  match  is  half  out,  that  is  to  say,  until 
twenty-fire  birds  each  have  been  shot  at,  when 
the  opposite  party  shall  commence  and  trap  an 
equal  number.  It  shall  be  decided  by  "toss" 
which  party    commences    trapping. 

The  r^ree,  in  all  cases,  unless  amicably  and 
mutually  agreed  upon,  to  be  appointed  by  the 
editor   of  the    Sfpirit  of  the  Times. 

In  ease  of  a  tie,  the  parties  shall  shoot  at 
five  birds  each ;  in  case  of  a  second,  they  shall 
shoot  at  five  inore,  and  so  on  until  the  match  is 
decided,  the  condition  covering  trappii^  to  apply 
the  same  as  in  the  match. 


Rules  of  the  National  Championship  Badge. 

Rule  1.  The  gun  must  not  be  carried  to  the 
shoulder  until  the  bird  is  on  the  wing. 

Rule  2.  A  misfire  shall  be  at  the  risk  of 
the  shooter. 


PIGEON-SUOOTING.  335 

Rule  3.  If  a  person  pulls  the  trap  without 
notice  from  the  shooter,  he  has  the  option  to 
take  the  bird  or  not. 

Rule  4.  If  on  the  trap  being  pulled  the  bird 
does  not  rise,  it  is  at  the  option  of  the  shooter  to 
take  it  or  not ;  but  if  not,  he  must  declare  it  by 
saying  "  No  bird." 

Rule  5.  Each  bird  must  be  recovered  within 
the  boundary,  eighty  yards,  within  three  minutes, 
if  required  by  any  party  interested,  or  it  must 
be  scored  lost.  If  a  bird  is  challenged  to  show 
shot-mark,  it  must  be  handed  to  the  referee  for 
his  decision. 

Rule  6.  If  a  bird  that  has  been  shot  perches 
or  settles  on  the  top  of  the  fence  or  on  any  of 
the  buildings  higher  than  the  fence,  it  is  to  be 
scored  a  lost  bird. 

Rule  7.  Or  if  a  bird  perches  or  settles  on 
the  top  of  a  fence,  or  on  any  of  the  buildings 
higher  than  the  fence,  and  then  falls  dead  to  the 
ground,   it  is  a  lost  bird. 

Rule  8.  If  a  bird  once  out  of  the  grounds 
should  return  and  fall  dead  within  the  boundary, 
it  must  be  scored  a  lost  bird. 

Rule  9.  If  the  shooter  advances  to  the  trap 
and    (trders    it    to    be    pulled,    and    does  not    shoot 


336  TRAP    SHOOTING. 

at  the  bird,  or  his  gun  is  not  properly  loaded, 
or  does  not  go  off,  the  bird  is  to  be  scored 
lost. 

Rule  10.  Should  a  bird  that  has  been  shot 
be  flying  away,  and  a  "  scout "  fires  and  brings 
the  bird  down  within  the  boundary,  the  referee 
may,  if  satisfied  the  bird  would  not  have  fallen 
by  the  gun  of  the  shooter,  order  it  to  be 
scored  a  'lost  bird;  or,  if  satisfied  the  bird  would 
have  fallen,  may  order  it  to  be  scored  a  dead 
bird ;  or,  if  in  doubt  on  the  subject,  he  may  order 
the  shooter  to  shoot  at  another  bird. 

Rule  11.  A  bird  shot  on  the  ground. with  the 
first  barrel  is  "  no  bird  " ;  but  it  may  be  shot  on 
the  ground  with  second  barrel  if  it  has  been 
fired  at  with  the  first  barrel  while  on  the 
wing. 

Rule  12.  The  shooter  is  bound  at  any  time  to 
gather  his  bird,  or  depute  some  person  to  do  so, 
when  called  on  by  his  opponent;  but  in  so  doing 
he  must  not  be  assisted  by  any  other  person,  or 
use  any  description  of  implement.  Should  the 
shooter  be  any  way  baffled  by  his  opponent,  or 
by  any  of  the  party  shooting,  he  can  claim  another 
bird,  with  the  sanction  of  the  referee. 

Rule    13.    Shooting    shall    be    from    five   traps. 


PIGEON-SHOOTING.  337 

If  more  than  one  trap  is  pulled,  so  that  more 
than  one  bird  is  on  the  wing  or  at  large  at  the 
same  time,  the  shooter  has  the  option  of  shoot- 
ing or  not ;  if  he  kills,  the  bird  must  be 
scored ;  but  should  he  miss,  it  shall  be  a  lost 
bird. 

Rule  14.  The  shooter  cannot  leave  the  shoot- 
ing-mark under  any  pretence  to  follow  up  any 
bird  that  will  not  rise,  but  is  walking  away  from 
the  trap  after  it  is  pulled ;  and,  having  once  left 
the  mark  after  shooting  at  the  bird,  cannot  re- 
turn to  shoot  at  it  again  under  any  circumstan- 
ces. The  amount  of  shot  for  each  barrel  shall 
not  exceed  one  ounce  and  a  quarter.  Any  shooter 
found  to  have  a  larger  quantity  in  his  gun,  or 
who  discharges  his  gun  after  his  load  is  challeng- 
ed, shall  be  at  once  disqualified.  The  five  ground 
traps  shall  be  placed  five  yards  apart,  under  the 
direction  of  the  referee,  thirty  yards  rise,  and  the 
use  of  both  barrels  is  allowed. 

Rule  15.  Each  shooter  shall  pull  the  traps 
for  his  opponent,  or  shall  nominate  a  man  to  do 
so.  The  puller  shall  in  all  cases  pull  fairly,  and 
without  delay ;  and  if  the  referee  shall  be  satisfied 
that  the  trap  was  not  pulled  fairly,  and  without 
resort   to    any   kind    of    baffling    device,   he    shall 


338  TRAP    SHOOTING. 

order  the  bird  to  be  scored  for  the  shooter, 
though  not  killed  within  bounds.  The  trap  to  be 
pulled  to  be  decided  by  tossing  a  die  by  the 
referee,  or  by  such  other  means  as  shall  be  just 
and  satisfactory. 

Rule  16.  Each  shooter  shall  come  to  the 
score  on  being  called  by  the  referee,  and  each 
may  claim  an  intermission  of  fifteen  minutes  once 
during  the  match. 

Rule  17.  The  boundary  shall  be  measured  from 
the  centre  of  the  middle  trap. 


Hides  of  the  Prairie  Shooting  Club  of  Chicago. 

[As  Amended  March  10,   1874] 

Rule  1.  Traps,  Rise  and  Boundaries.  —  All 
matches  shall  be  shot  from  H  and  T  plunge  or 
lever  traps,  the  choice  of  which  the  referee  shall 
decide  by  toss.  The  boundaries  shall  be  eighty 
yards  for  single  birds,  and  one  hundred  yards 
for  double  birds,  which  shall  be  measured  from  a 
point  equidistant  from,  and  in  a  direct  line  be- 
tween, the  two  traps,  or,  when  more  than  two 
traps  are  used,  in  a  direct  line  between  the  centre 
traps.  The  rise  for  single  birds  shall  be  twenty, 
one  yards,  and  for  double  birds  eighteen  yards. 


PIGKON-SIIOOTINa.  '      339 

Rule  2.  Distance  between  Traps. — In  single- 
bird  shooting,  the  distance  between  the  traps  shall 
be  five  yards ;  in  double-bird  shooting,  when  four 
traps  are  used,  they  shall  be  two  and  a  half  yards 
apart. 

Rule  3.  Judges  and  Referee. — Two  judges  and 
a  referee  shall  be  appointed  before  the  shooting 
commences,  and  the  referee's  decision  shall  be 
final.  lie  may  allow  a  contestant  another  bird 
in  case  the  latter  shall  have  been  balked  or  inter- 
fered with,  if  he  thinks  the  party  entitled  to  it. 

Rule  4.  Birds  and  Decision. — If  a  bird  shall 
fly  towards  parties  within  the  bounds,  in  such  a 
manner  that  to  shoot  at  it  would  endanger  any 
person,  another  bird  shall  be  allowed ;  and,  if  a 
bird  is  shot  at  within  the  bounds  by  any  person 
besides  the  party  at  the  score,  the  referee  shall 
decide  how  it  shall  be  scored,  or  whether  another 
bird  shall  be  allowed. 

Rule  5.  Position  at  the  Score. — After  the 
shooter  has  taken  his  stand  at  the  score,  he  shall 
not  level  his  gun  or  raise  the  butt  above  his  elbow 
until  tha  bird  is  on  the  wing.  Should  he  infringe 
on  this  rule,  the  bird  or  birds  shall  be  scared  as 
lost,  whether  killed  or  not. 

Rule  G.  Release  of  Birds. — The  shooter,  when 


340  TRAP    SIIOOTINff. 

ready,  to  say  "  pull,"'  and  the  puller  to  obey  such 
signal,  and  pull  the  trap  or  traps  fairly  and 
evenly,  and  release  the  bird  or  birds  instanter. 
If  the  trap  be  pulled  or  the  birds  released  before 
the  signal  is  given  by  the  shooter,  he  shall  have 
the  option  of  calling  "  No  bird "  and  refusing  to 
shoot ;  but  if  he  shoots,  the  bird  shall  be  deemed 
a  fair  one,  and  scored  for  or  against  him,  as  the 
case  may  be. 

Rule  7.  Rise  and  Call  of  Birds. — All  birds 
must  be  on  the  wing  when  shot  at,  or  will  be 
scored  as  lost  birds.  If  the  bird  does  not  rise 
immediately  after  the  trap  is  pulled,  the  shooter 
shall  have  the  option  of  calling  "  No  bird  " ;  and 
if  he  shoots  at  it  on  its  afterward  rising,  it  will 
be  considered  "a  lost  bird." 

Rule  8.  Gathering  Birds. — It  shall  be  optional 
with  the  party  shooting  to  gather  his  own  birds 
or  appoint  a  person  to  do  so  for  him.  In  all  cases 
the  bird  must  be  gathered  by  hand,  without  any 
forcible  means,  within  three  minutes  from  the 
time  it  alights,  or  be  scored  as  lost.  All  "birds" 
must  show  shot-marks  if  challenged.  A  bird 
once  out  of  bounds  shall  be  scored  as  lost. 

Rule  9.  Mitres.  —  Should  a  gim  miss  fire 
or  fail  to  discharge  from  any   cause,  it  shall  score 


piGEON-sirooTiNa.  341 

as  a  lost  bird,  unless  the  referee  finds,  upon  ex- 
amination, that  the  gun  was  properly  loaded,  and 
the  misfire  unavoidable,  in  which  case  he  shall 
allow  another  bird. 

Rule  10.  Birds  on  the  Wing.  —  In  double 
shooting,  both  birds  must  be  on  the  wing  when 
the  first  is  shot  at.  If  but  one  bird  flies,  and  one 
barrel  is  fired  or  snapped,  the  birds  shall  not  be 
scored,  whether  killed  or  missed,  but  the  party 
shooting  shall  have  two  more  birds ;  or,  if  both 
birds  fly  and  are  killed  with  one  barrel,  he  must 
shoot  at  two  other  birds. 

Rule  11.  8ize  of  Gun. — ^The  shooter  shall  not 
be  allowed  to  use  a  gun  of  larger  calibre  than 
that  known  as  No.  10. 

Rule  12.  Charge  of  Shot. — There  shall  be  no 
restriction  as  to  size  of  shot  used  ,or  charge 
of  powder,  but  the  charge  of  shot  shall  be  not 
to  exceed  the  regular  Dixon  Measure,  No.  1106 
or  No.    1107,   \^  oz.   by  measure  struck  off". 

Rule  13.  Penalty  for  Overloading. — The  Club 
shall  provide  a  standard  shot  measure,  and  all 
guns  shall  be  loaded  from  the  same,  except  in 
case  of  breech-loaders,  when  the  referee  may  open 
one  or  more  cartridges,  to  ascertain  if  the  charge 
of    shot    is    not    above    the    standard.     Any   person 


342  TRAP    SHOOTING. 

found  infringing  on  this  rule  shall  be  barred  from 
further  participation  in  the  match. 

Rule  14.  Ties  and  Distances. — In  case  of  ties 
at  single  birds,  the  distance  shall  be  increased  five 
yards.  In  case  of  second  tie,  the  distance  shall 
be  increased  five  yards  further,  and  this  distance 
shell!  be  maintained  until  the  match  is  decided, 
and  shall  be  shot  off  at  five  single  birds.  The 
ties  on  double-bird  shooting  shall  be  shot  off  at 
twenty-one  yards  •  at  five  double  rises. 

Rule  15.  Ties. — At  a  shooting  match,  all  tics 
shall  be  shot  off"  on  the  same  grounds  immediately 
after  the  match,  if  they  can  be  concluded  before 
sunset.  In  case  they  cannot  be  concluded  by  sun- 
set, they  shall  be  concluded  on  the  following  day, 
unless  otherwise  directed  by  the  judges  or  referee. 
This,  however,  shall  not  prevent  the  ties  from 
dividing  the  prizes,  if  they  may  all  agree  to  do 
so.  Should  one  refuse  to  divide,  then  it  must 
be  shot  off".  Any  one  of  the  ties  being  absent 
thirty  minutes  after  the  time  agreed  upon  to  shoot 
them  off"  shall  forfeit  his  right  to  contest  for  the 
prize. 

Rule  16.  Bribing  and  Penalty.  —  Any  com- 
petitor or  other  person  bribing,  or  attempting  to 
bribe,    the    trapper    or    puller,    or    attempting    to 


PIGEON-SHOOTING.  343 

obtain  an  unfair  advantage  in  any  manner  what- 
soever, to  be  disqualified  from  shooting  or  sharing 
in  the   results  of  the  match. 

Rule  17.  To  prevent  Accidents. — The  shooter, 
if  he  use  a  breech-loader,  shall  not  put  the  cart- 
ridge in  his  gun  until  called  to  the  score.  If  he 
use  a  muzzle-loader,  he  shall  leave  it  uncapped 
until  called. 

Rule  18.  Challenging  and  Penalties.  —  Any 
person  participating  in  a  match  shall  have  the 
privilege  of  challenging  a  competitor  as  to  charge 
of  shot  used,  and  the  referee  shall  make  such 
challenged  party  draw  his  charges  and  have  them 
examined  ;  and,  if  found  to  exceed  the  limit  fixed 
by  rule,  he  shall  forfeit  his  right  to  participate 
in  the  match,  or  share  in  the  same  in  any  way. 
If  he  fires  his  gun  after  being  challenged,  and  be-, 
fore  the  charge  has  been  examined  by  the  referee, 
he  shall  suffer  the  same  penalty  as  for  overloading. 

Rule  19.  Time  at  Score. — Each  participant  in 
a  shooting  match  shall  hold  himself  in  readiness, 
and  come  to  the  score  prepared  to  shoot  when 
his  name  is  called  by  the  scorer.  If  he  be  longer 
than  five  minutes,  it  shall  be  discretionary  with 
the  referee  whether  to  allow  him  to  shoot  or  not 
in   the    match. 


WM.  READ  &  SONS, 

13    FANEUIL    HALL    SQUARE, 
BOSTON,  ©-s^^^^^^^^s^  MASS. 

Mrorters  of  f^^^^^^^^^^S  &  Dealers  in 


Breech  and  Muzzle-Loading  Guns. 

"W.  C.  Scott  &  Son's,  Westley  Richard's,  Greener's,  Webley's,  Moore's 

and  others. 

Also,  Remin^on's,  Whitney's,  and  other  American  makes. 

Maynard's,  Ballard's,  Remington's,  Steven's,  and  other  Sporting  Rifles. 
Agents  for  W.  C   SCOTT  &  SON'S   BREECH-LOADERS. 

Every  size  of  these  celebrated  Breech-I>oadin(?  Guns  constantly  in  stock— 14, 
12, 10,  8,  and  4  bores— or  imported  to  special  order.  If  desired. 
Scott's  Illustrated  Book  on  Breech-Loaders,  bound  in  morocco,  25  cts.  by  mail. 

Bussey's  Patent  Gyro-Pigeon   Trap  for  Shooting 
Practice. 

Also,  Fine  Trout  and  Salmon  Rods,  Flies,  Reels,  and  every  article  in  FUihina 
Tachle.     Send  for  Cibcitlars. 

JOSEPH   BUTLER  &  CO., 

179  E.   MADISON  STREET,  CHICAGO, 

Winners  of  tlie  Chicago  Gun  Trial  of  1874,  at  Dexter  Park,  vmder  the  allspices  of  the 
Illinois  State  Sportsmen's  Association. 

Messrs.  BUTLER  &  CO.  respectfully  invite  the  attention  of  the 
Sportsmen  to  the  report  of  the  Gun  Trial,  from  which  it  will  be  seen 
that  jfuns  of  tlieir  own  manufacture,  and  those  rebored  by  them,  ex- 
celled both  in  pattern  and  penetration  those  of  any  other  maker. 

Messrs.  BUTLER  &  CO.  make  a  specialty  of  reboring  ^uns  to  shoot 
properly,  and  that  the  enviable  reputation  they  have  achieved  for  this 
class  of  "work  is  deserved,  the  following  extracts  from  the  above  report 
clearly  prove : 

"Throe  highest  averages  for  Pattern,  Daniel  T.  Elaton,  owner,— 191,  1-6. 
Rebored  by  J.  Butler  &  Co.  Manufactured  by  J.  Buti.ib  &  Co.,  owners,— 
181,  3-C.    Manufactured  by  J.  Butleb  &  Co.,  owners,- ISO,  4-6." 

JBreech-Zoaders  of  their  own  manufacture   are  warranted  un- 
excelled fry  those  of  any  other  maker. 

Each  and  every  part  of  the  sun  is  carefully  examined  by  Mr.  BTJTLER 
before  leaving  the  store.  Kepalrincr  of  all  kinds  neatly  done.  We  keep  in 
stock  every  quality  of  W.  C.  Scott  &  Son's  Breech-Louders,  winners  of  the  Gun 
Trial  of  1873,  in  New  York.  W.  W.  Greener's  and  other  celebrated  makers  kept 
In  stock.  Gun  materiul  of  all  kinds,  I'owder,  Shot, and  Caps,  Ely's  Ammunition 
and  Metalic  Co.'s  Shells  wmX  Cups,  Bonhin  Shells,  and  Diaper  &  Co.'s  Shells, itc, 
&c.  Afull  stock  of  J.  B.  Mclliirt;  .t,  C.>."s  and  Bradford  &  Anthony's  Fishing 
Tackle,  consistine  of  Bamho.i  Kods,  liuss  and  Trout  Rods,  Reels,  Spoon  Bait, 
Flies,  Silkworm  Gut,  Platoil  I-inen  iind  Silk  Lines,  Gut  and  (iimp  fish  Hooks, 
and  everything,'  in  the  line.  Sportsmen  visiting  the  West  will  find  every  requi- 
site for  a  complete  outfit.  I'urties  from  the  East  can  have  Shells  loaded  to 
order  on  short  notice,  and  shipped  to  any  pjirts  of  the  States.  A  full  stock  kept 
constantly  on  hand.    Ground  and  Plunge  Traps. 


TO    SP»ORTS]Vd[EN. 


c^. 


^ 


p  ^%\^^ 


"z 


^  DROP  SHOT.  ^ 


Compared  with  any  other,  will 

he  found  Cleaner,  Heavier, 

and  more  Uniform, 


A  WEEKLY  JOURNAL  (OF  SIXTEEN  PAGES), 


DEVOTED  TO 


FIELD    SPOETS, 

practical  |tatwral  |)istorg, 
Fish  Culture,  Protection  of  Game,  Preservation  of  Forests, 

YACHTINCS,     BOATING, 

AND  Alili 

OUT-DOOR  RECREATION  &  STUDY. 


IT  IS  THE  OFFICIAL,  ORGAN  OP  THE 

AMERICAN    FISH    CULTURISTS'   ASSOCIATION. 


C]^:e  ^axtBt  antr  Stream 

Is  the  only  Journal  published  in  this  country  that  fully  supplies  tJie 
wants  and  meets  the  necessities  of  the 

Gentleman  Sportsman. 

SEND    FOn    SrJECIMEN    COPT.        TEBM8,    9S    A     TJEAB. 


Address: 


Forest  and  Stream  Publishing  Confipany, 

17  CHATHAM  ST.  (City  Hall  Square),  NEW  YORK. 
125  SOTTTH  THIRD  ST.,  PHILADELPHIA. 
124  DEAlinOUN  ST.,  CHICAGO. 


The  Sportman's  Oracle  &  Country 
gentleman's  newspaper, 

A  Weekly  Review  and  Chronicle  of  the 

Turf,  Field  and  Aquatic  Sports, 

AGRICULTURE,  ART,  SCIENCE, 

LITERATURE,  CHESS,  DRAUGHTS,  BILLIARDS,  VETERINARY, 
SHOO"^ING,  FISHING, 

Trapping,  Athletic  Pastimes,  yatural  JXistoryf 

'^usit  anir  t^c  grama. 


rpHE  TCTRF,  FIELD  AND  FARM,  having  by  far  the  largest  circnla- 
-L  tion  of  any  paper  of  its  class  published  In  the  country,  is, -by  its 
culture  and  ability,  the  recognized  authority  on  all  the  subjects  of 
which  it  treats,  as  its  high  moral  tone  and  advocacy  of  healthy,  eleva- 
ting and  manly  sports  have  won  for  it  the  approval  and  active  patron- 
age of  the  best  and  most  intelligent  people  in  the  land ;  and  the  substan- 
tial evidence  of  its  growing  popularity  is  the  continual  and  steady 
increase  of  circulation  throughout  the  "WORLD. 

Every  Turf  Association,  Agricultural  Society,  Horse  Owner,  Stock 
Breeder,  Club  and  Library,  should  subscribe  and  have  on  file,  for 
reference,  a  journal  representing  the  vast  interests  advocated  by  the 
TCTRF,  FIELD  AND  FARM. 

TO    THOSE    WHO    ADVERTISE. 

The  TURF,  FIELD  AND  FARM  has  an  undisputed  claim  to  be  one 
of  the  best  general  advertising  mediums  in  the  United  States.  Its  cir- 
culation throughout  the  world  has  increased  three  fold  during  the  past 
three  years  without  increase  of  rates,  and  is  still  extensively  spreading. 
The  paper  is  read  by  tens  of  thousands  every  week,  while  Horsemen, 
Sportsmen,  Farmers,  and  the  lovers  of  aquatic  and  kindred  sports  pre- 
serve and  bind  their  copies. 

Specimen  copies,  with  premium  lists,  catalogue  of  publications,  etc., 
sent  upon  application. 


TURF,  FIELD  AND  FARM  ASSOCIATION, 

Office :  37  Park  How,  New  Tork, 
For  Sale  by  Newsdealers  throughout  the  "VTorid. 


BARTON,  ALEXANDER,  &  WALLER, 

101  and  103  Duane   Street,  New   Yorkf 

IMPORTERS  AND  DEALERS  IN 

Breech  and  Muzzle-Loading  Guns 

OF  ALL  THE  BEST  MAKERS. 

EIFLES,  PISTOLS,   AMMUNITION, 

And  Sportsmen's  Ooods  of  all  Kinds. 


FISHING    TACKLE 

or  EVERY  VARIETY. 

J^ISH  HOOKS,   RODS,   REELS,  LINES,  ^c. 

Artificial  Flics  and  Baits  on  band,  and  made  to  order. 

FINEST  QUALITY  SPLIT  BAMBOO  FLY  RODS 

FOR  TROUT  AND  SALMON  FISHING. 


-A-gents    for    the 

UNITED  STATES  ARMS  CO.'S  REVOLVERS. 

Alexande^'^s  Pocket  Cutlery, 
JOHN    W.    COURT    &   CO.'S  FISH   HOOKS. 


THE 


pirit  nf  l|t  Cimts : 


THE  AMERICAN  GENTLEMAN'S  NEWSPAPER. 

Annual  Subscription,  $5.00. 
PTJBLISHEI3    ^^EEKLY, 

IN   HANDSOME   FOHM. 


THIS  Journal  ia  devoted  to  Field  Sports,  Accounts  of  Ex- 
ploration and  adventure,  Exploits  on  Flood  and  Field  and 
in  the  Jungle  and  the  Forest,  the  Current  History  and  Philo- 
sophy of  the  Turf,  the  Science  of  Breeding  and  Raising  Run- 
ning and  Trotting  Horses,  Yachting,  including  the  science  of 
construction,  Hunting,  Fishing,  Billiards,  the  Stage,  and  the 
Literature  of  the  day.    An  especial  feature  is 

THE   VETERINARY   DEPARTMENT. 

One  of  the  most  able  and  successful  Veterinary  Surgeons  of 
the  age  answers  questions  and  gives  directions  and  prescrip- 
tions, gratis,  for  the  reUef  and  cure  of  Horses,  Cattle,  Dogs,  etc., 
suffering  from  disease  or  injury  by  accident.  Hundreds  of  sub- 
scribers  declare   this  department  to  be  worth  the  WHOiiE 

SUBSCRIPTION. 

THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   TIMES 

Also  gives  carefully  considered  answers,  judicial  in  their 
nature  and  thoroughly  impartial,  to  questions  in  dispute  among 
gentlemen,  and  submitted  by  the  parties  for  authoritative 
decision.  It  also  resolves  questions  of  interest  where  no  dis- 
pute exists  and  no  money  is  involved,  but  where  information  is 
desired.  The  readers  value  these  columns  of  The  Spirit  very 
highly. 

OUR   CORPS   OF   CORRESPONDENTS 
is  unrivaled. 

GEORGE  WILKES, 

Editor  and  Proprietor, 

3  Park  Sow,  y.  T. 


THE 


l^mmau  ^prtemaii 


CONTAINS  ALL  THE 


LATEST    RIFLE    NEWS; 


FULL  SCORES  OF  SHOOTING 


Practical  Natural  History  ; 


Fishing  and  Gunning. 


FOR     S.A.IL1E     BY     ^LLi      ISTE^WS      DEAXiKRS. 


Price,  10  Cents. 


SCHDEEE.  HAETLEY  &  GEAHAil, 

IMPORTERS  AND  MANUFACTURERS  OF 

GUNS,  RIFLES,  PISTOLS 


SPORTING    ARTICLES, 

19  Maiden  Lane,  20  &  22  John  St.,  New  Ywrk, 


BREECH- LOADING  GUNS  A  SPECIALTY. 


Fine  Guns  and  Rifles  manufactured  and  imported  to  order. 

Agents  for  the  Union   Metallic  Cartridge  Company. 

The  Siurtevant  Brass  Shell  for  Breech-Loading  Shot  Guns. 


BLACK'S 
CARTRIDGE 


PATENT 
VEST. 


This  vest  affords  the  best  arrangement  for  carrying  cartridges  yet 
invented.  The  weight  is  so  evenly  distributed  that  it  is  scarcely  felt. 
The  heads  of  the  cartridges  can  be  carried  down,  which  is  of  importance 
when  the  brass  shells  are  used,  as  in  carrying  them  with  the  heads  up 
the  weight  of  the  shot  often  forces  the  wad  forward,  when  bad  shooting 
is  the  result.  The  vest  is  made  of  English  fustian,  and  is  a  sportsman- 
like garment. 

Trice,  each $7.S0. 

In  ordering  send  measurement  around  the  chest,  and  gauge  of  gun. 


SCHUYLER,  HARTLEY  &  G-RAHAM, 

19   nVEaiden    Ijane,    New    "^Torls. 
Send  for  Circular. 


Sturtevant's  Patent  Brass 
Shell  for  Brcecb  -  Loadinar 
Shot  Guus. 


o 


"PARKER" 

THE      PIONEER     GUN 
m-     still    Alieadl!     ^^ 


EVERY  FIRST    PRIZE    FOR  TRAP   SHOOTING 

At  the  last  convention  of  the 
NEW    YORK    STATE    ASSOCIATION 

WON    WITH    "THE    PARKER"! 


Messrs.  Neweui/  and  Hambleton,  winners  of  the  onlu  prize  givea 
for  "  making  the  largest  score  in  the  three  regular  shoots," 

Both  Shot  The  Parker  Oun ! ! 

Two  of  the  three  winners  of  the  Grand  State  Prize, 
"  The  Dean  Richmond  Cirp," 

UPSHOT    THE    PARKER,    G^UN!!-^ 

Medals  and  Diplomas  awarded   THE  PARKER  GUN, 

When  placed  on  exhibition  in 

COMPETITION   OPEN   TO   THE   WORLD. 

MEDAIi  AND  DIPLOMA 

From  the  Ajaerican  Institute— 1863. 

SlIiVER   MEDAL 

Texas  State   Fair,  1871. 

SIIiVER  MEDAL 

Texas  State   Pair,  1873. 

SILVER    MEDAL 

Mechanics  and  Agricultural  Fair  Association  of  Louisiana— 1872. 

DIPLOMA 

From  the  Vermont  State  Agricultural  Society— 1808. 

DIPLOMA 

From  the  New  Hampshire  State  Agricultural  Society— 1808. 

DIPLOMA 

From  the  New  Haven  County  (Conn.)  Agricultural  Society— 1867. 

DIPLO.MA 

From  the  Sardis  (Mass.)  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  Society,  1870. 

DIPLOMA 

EYom  the  Connecticut  Valley  Agricultural  Association- 1870. 

DIPLOMA 

Agricultural  and  Mechanical  Association  of  West  Alabama— 1871. 

DIPLOMA 

Adams  County  (Miss.)  Ag4-icultural  and  Mechanical  Association- 1872. 

FIR.ST   PREMIUM 

At  the  Delaware  County  (Iowa)  Fair— 1871. 

Send  fob  Reduced  Price  List,  May  1st,  1874. 

Prices,  $45,  S50,  $60,  $63,  $75,  $80,  $100,  $105,  $150,  $^0,$350. 

Bebounding-Locks  included. 

PARKER  BROTHERSTWest  Meriden,  Conn. 


ORANGE 
SPORTING  POWDER, 

MANUFACTURED  BT 

LAFLIN  &  RAND  POWDER  COMPANY, 


NE-W     YORK. 


ORANGE    LIGHTNING    POWDER. 

This  is  the  strong'est  and  cleanest  powder  made.  Nos.  1  to  7.  Packed 
only  in  sealed  1  lb.  canisters.  The  coarser  sizes  are  especially  recom- 
mended to  owners  of  breech-loading  guns,  giving  great  penetration 
with  very  slight  recoil.  For  trap  shooting  use  No.  5  in  guns  of  12  gauge, 
and  No,  6  in  those  of  10  gauge. 

ORANGE    DUCKING    POWDER. 

A  very  strong,  clean  powder,  good  for  all  shooting.  Nos.  1  to  5. 
EspeciaUy  adapted  to  killing  ducks  and  geese  at  long  range,  and  less 
liable  to  be  affected  by  dampness  than  other  brands.  Packed  in  6>i  lb. 
kegs,  in  5  lb.  canisters,  and  1  lb.  canisters. 

AUDUBON. 

This  is  a  verf  quick,  clean  powder  for  woodcock  and  quail  shooting. 
Nos.  1  to  4.    Packed  in  12X  lb.  kegs,  6X  Id.  kegs,  and  in  1  lb.  canisters. 

ORANGE    RIFLE    POWDER. 

This  is  more  generally  used  for  field  shooting  than  any  of  the  other 
brands,  being  less  costly  than  the  liigher  grades,  and  giving  nearly  tho 
same  results  in  the  field. 

No  powder  maJo  of  this  grade  will  show  such  cleanliness  as  Orange 
Rifle.  Packed  in  25  lb.  kegs,  12)4  lb.  kegs,  6}i  ib.  kegs,  and  in  1  lb.  can- 
isters.   Sizes,  F,  FF,  FFF. 

All  tho  above  kinds  of  powder  will  give  greater  penetration  aud 
leave  less  residuum  in  the  gun  than  any  other  brands  known. 

The  LAFLIN  AND  RAND  POWDER  COMPANY  are  engaged  in 
the  manufacture  of  Gunpowder  for  sporting  and  also  for  mining  pur- 
poses on  the  largest  scale,  ha\ing  their  factories  at  many  different 
points.  Sporting  powder  is,  however,  made  by  them  only  in  the  Stato 
of  New  York,  taking  its  name  from  tho  old  Orange  Mills  in  Onuige  Cf). 
Their  mills  have  the  most  approved  methods  and  perfect  appoint- 
ments, anJ  the  product  is  shipped  to  their  magazines  in  all  parts  of  tlio 
country,  and  to  foreign  ports.  The  reputation  of  tho  Orange  Powder, 
established  many  years  since,  will  be  carefully  guarded. 

Bi-anchos  of  the  house  are  established  at  St.  Louis,  Chicago,  Du- 
buque, Buffalo,  and  Baltimore,  besides  agencies  in  all  tho  principal 
towns  and  cities. 


USE    THE 


REMINGTONS' 

Double- Barreled,  Breech -Loading  Shot  Gun. 


WhUtnore's  ratenta.    August  8,  1871.    A.prU  16f 


187». 


We  are  now  prepared  to  furnish 
our  Improved  Double-Barred- 
ED  Breech-Lo  ading  Shot  Gun, 
which  we  reco  mmend  as  the  best 
ever  oflfered  the  American  sports- 
man, combining  all  the  most  de- 
sirable features  of  the  best  En- 
glish double  guns,  together  with 
some  valuable  Improvements  not 
found  in  any  other. 

In  the  prod  notion  of  these  guns 
no  expense  or  trouble  has  been 
spared. 

In  order  to  suit  the  requtre- 
monts  of  our  different  customers, 
we  make  three  styles  of  gun,  dif- 
fering o)il)j  in  the  finish  and  kind 
of  barrels  and  stocks,  which  we 
offer  at  the  foil  owing  prices : 

Plain  Walnat  Stock,  De- 
carbonized Steel  Bar- 
rels  $45  00 

Fancy  Stock«  Twist 
Barrels,      .   .    -   .   -   -  60  00 

Extra  Finish  Stock,  Da- 
mascus or  other  Fancy 
Twist  Barrels,  En- 
graved Ijock  Plate,  -   -  75  00 

In  all  of  these  guns  only  the  best 
materials  and  workmanship  are 
employed. 

In  order  to  enable  us  to  offer  a 
thoroughly  well  made  and  relia- 
ble gun  at  the  low  price  of  $45,  we 
have  omitted  all  ornamentation 
of  either  the  stock  or  metal  work, 
leaving  both  tip  and  butt  stock 
plain. 

Leagth  of  barrel,  28.  30  inches. 
Bire,  10,  12  gauge.  Weight:  28 
Indies,  No.  13  gauge,  S}^  lbs. ;  No. 
10  i?auga,  8X  lbs.  30  laches,  No.  13 
gaiga,   8X    lbs.;    No.   10  gauge, 

t^"  In  fixing  upon  the  model 
of  our  gun,  we  have  chosen  what 
W3  thiak  best  adapted  to  meet  the 
wants  of  the  public.  We  cannot 
vary,  in  any  particct-ar,  from 
the  dimensions  and  weight  before 
mentioned,  or  in  the  style  of  fin- 
ish. Send  for  illustrated  Cata- 
logue and  price-list. 
Address 


E.   REMINGTON    &   SONS, 

281  and  283  Broadway,  N.  Y, 


MANUFACTOHIC : 
IL.ION,  Uerkiiiier  Co..  N.  V. 


P.  O.  BOX,  S904. 


''T  HE       F  I  E  L  D/' 

A  JOURNAL  FOR  THE  SPORTSMEN  OF  TO-DAY. 

Piablished    EVERY    SA.XXJRr)A.Y    MIORNING- 

AT 

179    EAST    MADl«*ON    STREET,    CHICAGO. 

Terms  of  Subscription  :  Payable  in  advance.    Yearly,  $4.00 ;  half-yearly,  $2.00. 

Foreign  and  Canadian  Subscription,  post  free— yearly,  IBs. ;  half-yearly,  9g. 

Single  copies,  10  cents. 

ri'^HE  FIELD  is  a  complete  weekly  review  of  the  higher  branches  of 
J-  sport— Shooting:,  Fishing-,  Hacins:  and  Trotting,  Yachting  and 
Rowing,  Base  Ball,  Cricket,  Billiards,  and  General  Sporting  News, 
Music  and  the  Drama. 

THE  FIELD  will  be  found  in  keeping  with  the  times  on  all  subjects 
pertaining  to  honorable  sport,  and  will,  under  no  circumstances,  admit 
to  its  columns  anything  tending  in  an j  wise  to  demoralize  or  degi-ade 
public  sentiment. 

THE  FIELD  being  the  only  Sporting  Journal  published  west  of  New 
York,  and  tlie  recognized  authority  among  the  sportsmen  of  the  West 
and  South,  among  whom  it  enjoys  a  large  and  increasing  patronage, 
possesses  superior  advantages  as  an  advertising  medium,  which  will  be 
appreciated  by  those  desiring  to  make  their  business  known  in  the 
United  States. 

Agents  for  Great  Britain.— Messrs.  Kirby  &  Endean,  190  Oxford 
Street,  London. 

NOTICE   TO   THE   TKADE. 

News  Agents  desirous  of  being  supplied  with  THE  FIELD  are  re- 
quested to  apply  to  the  publishers,  1T9  East  Madison  Street,  from  whom 
only  it  can  be  obtained. 

F.   J.   A^BBEY   &    CO., 

manufacturers  and  importers  of 

Breech  and  Muzzle-Loading  Guns 

RIFLES    AND    PISTOLS. 

Dealers  in  Fishing  Tackle  ami   General  Sporting  Goods. 

***   Bad  Sliootinsr  (inns  made  to  shoot  well. 

SHELLS  LOADED  TO  ORDEK. 

43    S.    CLARK    STREET,    CITICAGO,    HI. 

JOSEPTI     TOISTKB, 

GUN    MANUFACTURER, 
45  &  49  Union  St.,  and  1  Marshall  St.,  Boston. 

IMPORTER  AND  DKALER  IN 

GUNS,  RIFLES,  REVOLVERS  &  CUTLERY, 

Parker  Brccch-LoadiiiSf  Sliot-Gim. 

Breech-Loading  Shot-Gnns  of  celebrated  English  makers.  Paper 
and  Metallic  Shells  for  Shot-Guns  of  all  kinds.  Metallic  Cartridges  for 
Rifles,  Re\  olvers  and  Pistols.  Caps,  Wa<1s,  Powder.  Shot,  &c.,  &c. 
Pocket  Cutlery,  Razors,  Scissors,  &c.  Air-Guna  and  Cap  Bifles  for 
Saloons  and  Fairs.    Fire  Arms  Repaired. 


SFOKTSMEN'S      DET'OT. 


JOHN    KRIDER, 

CORNER   SECOND  &  WALNUT  STREETS,   PHILADELPHIA, 

IMPORTER,  MAJfCFACTURER  AXD  DKALER  IN' 

GUNS,  RIFLES,  PISTOLS 

AND 

FISHINO   TACKLE    OF   ALL.   KL^DS. 


He  Invites  all  Sportsmen  and  dealci-s  in  his  line  to  examine  his  stock 
of  Flies  and  Spliced  Bamboo  Rods,  which  are  the  best  in  this  country. 
"We  malie  Flies  of  all  kinds  to  order,  or  rods  of  any  stjle. 

Has  constantly  on  hand  a  full  assortment  of  Rods,  Hooks,  Lines, 
Baits,  Reels,  Hooks,  Salmon  Flics,  Waterproof  Silk  Lines,  Silk  and  Hair 
Trout  Lines,  &c.  Perch  Snoods,  China  and  Grass  Lines.  Also,  a  lai^ 
lot  of  Cane  Reeds,  Bamboo  and  Japan. 

MANUFACTURER   OF 

FINE  BREECH  &  MUZZLE-LOADING  GUNS 

TO  ORDER. 

A  FtiU  Assortment  of  Spoi'fstnen's  Implements 
and  Fishing  Taclde. 

■*i> 

No.     131    WALNUT    STREET,    PHILADELPHIA. 


PIGEON  TRAPS. 


"H"  and   "T" 
PLUNGE    TBAPS. 

Common  Traps    .    .    .    (per  pair)  $15.00 
Patent  Self -Closing:  Traps     "  25.00 

A  pair  of  th^^se  Traps  sent  by  freight  or  ex- 
press on  receipt  of  price. 

W.  F.  PARKER, 

West  Meriden,  Conn, 


AMERICAN 

STANDARD. 


Patent  Sifted  Eagle  Brand 

OF 

CHILLED 

DROP  SHOT 


AS  ADOPTED  BY  THE 


NfifM  State  SprtnierrAwiation. 

— _  ,4^  — 

THOS.  OTIS  LE  ROY  &  CO, 

PATENT  SHOT  d-  LEAD   WORKS, 

261    &    263    WATER    STREET, 

NEW   TOKK, 

SOLE     MANUFACTURERS. 


SCHOVERLING  &  DALY, 

84  &  86  CHAMBER  STREET,  NEW  YORK, 


MA-NUFACTUKERS  OF  THE 


CHARLES    DALY 

BREECH -LOADING  GUNS. 


These  Guns  are  pronounced  by  every  dealer  and  sports- 
man who  has  handled  them  to  be  the  finest  finished  and 
closest  and  strongest  shooting  Guns  in  the  market.  The 
barrels  are  of  beautiful  pattern  and  finish,  and  the  locks 
and  mountings  of  the  best  quality. 

For  sale  by  all  the  first-class  Gun  Dealers  at  our  prices  : 

Side  Snap  Action |l(J(i.O()  to  $110.00 

Top  Snup  Action,  Double  Bolt 130.00  "     175.00 

Pistol  Grip  Stocks  (extra) 10.00  — 

Extra  Close  and  Hard  Shootinif  guai*anteed  for  12.00  extra. 

Agents  for    WM.    fOWI<:i.T,   &    SONS. 


WM,  POWELL  &  SONS'  BREECH-LOADERS 

Have  acquired,  during:  the  past  few  years,  the  first  place  in  th© 
estimation  of  English  sportsmen ;  as  they  come  into  use  in  this 
country,  they  are  coming  to  be  known  as  the  hest  gun  made 
in  England. 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

405  Hilgard  Avenue,  Los  Angeles,  CA  90024-1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  lit>rary 

from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


m9 

RECtlVE 


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